Giuseppe Borsalino - nicknamed "u siur Pipen" (Master Joe) in the local dialect – was born in Alessandria in Italy in 1834. After starting as an errand boy then an apprentice in his home town, he finds a job at the Berteil hat factory in Rue du Temple, Paris, where he works for around seven years before becoming a qualified Master Hatter. A year after returning to Italy, Giuseppe opens his first workshop in a courtyard in Via Schiavina in Alessandria together with his brother, Lazzaro. It was the beginning of a story that was to achieve great success and immense satisfaction, becoming the stuff of legend.