A Visit To Vitale Barberis Canonico Mill, Biella
Founded in 1663, with 13 generations of family at the helm. One of the most iconic, revered and advanced textiles mills in the world. Size, scale and science, with an uncompromising commitment to quality.
The famed Vitale Barberis Canonico (or “VBC”) represent a true legacy in the craft of fabrics. Our range of VBC fabrics have always been incredibly popular; people are drawn to the stories and history of the mill.
Our hosts, Franco and Valentina, take us on a tour of their sprawling headquarters, revealing the staggering scale and science of the operation. (Franco had a good laugh at our casual attire. When we told him a truck had stuck itself inside the tunnel and stopped us from getting back to our villa, he sort of shrugged. Like, it happens.)
Fabrics rolled and ready for delivery around the world. It’s difficult to describe or even show the true size of the VBC milling operation; this room (we’re looking down from a glass window) is 70 metres high, carved into the mountain and jammed with some of the most incredible cloths in the world. Like most of the factory, it’s also completely automated, with a single supervisor managing the dispatch of millions of square metres (and dollars) of fabric each week.
Artisan skill, but at scale: to transform the Australian Merino wool into a final fabric suitable for your custom InStitchu suit the team at VBC have hundreds of specialist machines spread across seven underground levels, preparing, testing and blending the wool with precise detail.
“It is our region’s legacy,” says Franco, and he isn’t wrong. While the milling of medium and lower quality fabrics has moved to Asia in the last few decades, the top brands and tailors all still lean on the Biella mills.
A mix of technology, tradition and generations of regional experience means nowhere else in the world can hit the standard (and creative artistry) of the local mills, and as you wander through, you can sense the passion of the workers, quietly and proudly going about their lifetime’s work.
“Water is the secret ingredient,” says Franco. It seems that every room of the expansive, subterranean mill demands huge quantities of water, cleaning and softening and washing the Australian Merino wool at each stage.
And, if you asks any of the locals, it’s why Biella fabrics are so much better: the fresh water comes running right off the Alps in the distance, imparting its purity and properties on the fabric for unparalleled quality.
A team of more than 70 quality checkers, each with a minimum five years experience at the mill, go through every inch of fabric at least three times, repairing any minor issues in the cloth by hand and confirming the final fabric is up to the standard of VBC.
The final stop at our tour of the famous VBC mill is pretty special; their remarkable archive room. Here, in specific scientific conditions and meticulous order, a record of VBCs long and proud history is kept, from customer records to balance books and fabric lists from over the centuries. In this book you’ll note the fabric order of a king’s tailor from previous centuries, or there you’ll uncover a little fabric from an old shipment to Australia’s earliest tailors.
It’s a scientific and sartorial database for the brand, but also the region; VBC have taken the charge of purchasing and restoring the archival records of other brands, particularly those who have shuttered over the years, so that the cultural impact of the region and people is preserved.
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