Alessi

A workshop becomes a design factory

Alessi began in 1921 as a workshop for processing brass and nickel-silver sheet metal, with a foundry in Crusinallo, part of Omegna in northern Italy. The company’s official history names Giovanni Alessi and a brother as the founders of Fratelli Alessi Omegna, while the brother’s name is not given there.

During the 1950s, the business moved progressively toward stainless steel and industrial-scale production, including professional objects for hotels, restaurants and bars. The change expanded its technical vocabulary without erasing the attention to metal that shaped the original workshop.

The recurring idea is not decoration for its own sake, but the possibility that a familiar object can carry a distinct point of view.

Industry, with a craftsman’s attention

Alessi describes its practice as a meeting point between craft and industrial production: factory processes are adapted to the needs of each design. Collaborations with independent designers became central to that approach, especially from the 1970s onward.

The result is a catalog where authorship can remain visible even in modest household tools. A serving spoon can be deliberately restrained; a citrus peeler can read almost like a small sculpture; a pair of ice tongs can preserve the directness of a technical-office design from the mid-century hospitality era.