Textiles and art live in harmony in the Bonotto universe. The practiced hands of artisans operate the company's mechanical looms, turning out fabrics for Armani, Prada, Zegna, and Louis Vuitton. Speed takes a backseat to quality; craftsmanship matters more. Contemporary works of art dot the factory floor. Textiles inform art and art informs textiles. And so the cycle goes at Bonotto, the Italian manufacturer of luxury textiles whose name is synonomous with creativity, innovation, and Made in Italy excellence.

But hold on. Manufacturing is highly competitive, right? Isn't the Bonotto model at odds with industry norms? How does the company prosper? The short answer is: very well. This Italian firm has successfully bucked the trend of mass production and standardization.

A four-generation story of entrepreneurship

Bonotto is based in Molvena in the province of Vicenza, about a hour's drive northwest of Venice. The area has been a center of textile production for centuries. Bonotto's roots deep here. Its four-generation history of entrepreneurship tells its story.

Bonotto got its start in 1912, when Luigi Bonotto and his wife opened a straw hat factory in Marostica, a medieval town in Vicenza, famous today for the live biannual chess game played in its town square. The couple built a successful business; Ernest Hemingway and Maurice Chevalier wore Bonotto straw hats. The factory was at peak performance in the 1950s but fashion trends were changing. Luigi's son, Giovanni, the second generation to enter the business, began to diversify into straw for the furniture trade. By the 1970s, the company had shifted entirely to fine wool textiles, a charge led by third generation Luigi Bonotto, son of Giovanni.

Luigi had learned the textile trade working as an apprentice in the Marzotto family wool mills (the progenitor of the current Italian textile leader Marzotto Group) in Valdagno, not far from Marostica. By 1972, he had converted his grandfather's straw factory into a full-cycle textile manufactuer. As a young man, Luigi had also developed an avid interest in avant garde art. He had been introduced to a circle of contemporary artists, primarily associated with the Fluxus movement, which flourished in the 60's and 70's. Fluxus artists experimented with different forms of art, including poetry and music, challenging and expanding boundaries. Art would become a lifelong passion for Luigi and a driving force of Bonotto culture and values.

By 1977, the factory had been relocated to nearby Molvena. Luigi had created a Casa degli artisti on the property, a guesthouse where he hosted many of the Fluxus and other artists of the day. Yoko Ono and Marcel Duchamp stayed there. In the 1980s, Luigi expanded his art collection and began to create luxury fabrics. The influence of the artists in the Bonotto orbit was felt throughout the factory, from spontaneous interactions between artists and textile craftsmen to the artistic mindset that influenced operations and designs.

A new generation makes its mark with La fabbrica lenta

The fourth generation of Bonottos enters the scene in 1996. Luigi's son, Giovanni, became creative director. In 2000, both Giovanni and his younger brother, Lorenzo, formally take the reins. Giovanni remains the creative force. The duo lead the company today.

During the decade, Giovanni would make a ground-breaking change in Bonotto's production process to counter the standardization that had permeated textile manufacture. He introduced the concept of la fabbrica lenta, or the "slow factory." In this model, operators are not simply overseeing a standard industrial process, they put their artisanal knowhow to work and own the process. This innovative approach had been percolating in Giovanni's mind for some time.

As a university student, Giovanni had studied under Umberto Eco, whose philosophy of semiotics and concentration on the "whys" had left an indelible mark on the young man. Giovanni's inclination for alternative thinking had also been influenced by his exposure to the world of artists at an early age. Plus, he had visited textile mills in Japan where many firms had retained their older looms to produce premium cloths, altering the expected. Then there was his friend Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, born in the 1980s out of a protest against "fast food." He left his mark as well.

The Italian textile industry was in trouble in the 2000s and the time for change was ripe. The global financial crisis combined with stiff competition from Chinese entrants into the market had forced venerable Italian textile firms to shutter their factories and let workers go. Italian industry had invested heavily in new machinery to keep pace but the results were tepid. All the while, Giovanni had been buying discarded looms from the 1950s knowing that they could produce fabrics with the finesse that new looms couldn't muster. He converts his factory to the fabbrica lenta methods in 2007, producing less at a higher value.

The outcome? Today, the 30 million euro-strong Bonotto has more than 200 functioning mechanical looms operated by approximately 200 workers (Bonotto considers them to be piccoli maestri d'arte.) Output is impressive: 1,000 new fabrics are produced each year. Three million square meters of fabrics are manufactured with fibers ranging from wools, silk, and cotton to the exotic hairs of the albino camel, the guanaco, and the wild hares of Patagonia.

Fondazione Bonotto

Art is ingrained in the Bonotto DNA and a constant reference point. The connection was formalized in 2013 with the founding of Fondazione Bonotto to support and promote the 20,000 piece art collection that Luigi Bonotto had amassed. The Fondazione Bonotto's influence is far reaching. It plays an active, vibrant role as both patron and collaborator, supporting artistics initiatives, commissioning installations of established and emerging artists, and organizing showings and seminars that both educate and fascinate.

A collaborative future

Last October was an inflection point in Bonotto's history. Mens fashion leader Ermenegildo Zegna (2015 annual revenue of 1.26 billion euro) acquired 60% of the Bonotto enterprise. Bonotto retained 40% as well as the management and creative direction of the company. Additional resources will support future innovations, but in an interview in Corriere della sera on October 3, 2016 Giovanni Bonotto stressed that the Zegna group had values similar to his own company's - that was the priority. Afterall, there is culture to safeguard, as there has been throughout Bonotto's 105-year history. Art, life, work, and the future of exquisite Made in Italy textiles remain in good hands and harmony in the Bonotto universe.