Photography by Kateryna Komar Pietra
Our business was founded in 1955 by my father with his brothers, and the grandmother who made shirts. It all started on my part as a mission: to make the traditional handmade product known to an international audience. Not the usual business conduct aimed only at turnover, not the usual warehouse with industrial machines, but the desire to create a product using only old sewing machines.
The anecdote of the former prime minister, our regular customer, who on one occasion wore a folkloristic and tasteless shirt whose creation had been attributed to me, is well known.
The Japanese press, then the English, American and Italian ones, pointed the finger at me and when I defended myself, paradoxically and involuntarily, I gave my product a lot of notoriety.
We started selling to many customers from all over the world. They came to browse our atelier to appreciate our art in making shirts. And it was precisely curiosity that aroused the interest of Prince William of England, who was fascinated by how much a simple shirt could tell, inherent in a tradition handed down from generation to generation with so much love for their work.

We have been rewarded for the courage to have drawn and looked to the past to go far beyond our borders. We have made the ancient tradition our source of inspiration: in embroidery there is the unwritten culture of our country, handed down, there is the work of many, the awareness of oneself and one’s dignity. It is meticulous, artisanal work done with love and passion.

Many are driven by curiosity to know how I managed to make my company emerge despite operating in a small town in Puglia: Ginosa. Many are amazed by the strong bond I have with my land. “Why not invest in other important cities?” they ask me. I believe it is the riches of my territory that stimulate the creativity and imagination, which allow me to create such a fascinating and desirable product and ensure that it can be appreciated abroad.
Great satisfaction and esteemed customers are all that is worth more to us than the classic galloping increase in turnover. This short story sums up my story and that of Ginosa.
It was precisely our love for this town that led us to refuse a significant sales offer from English investors, who would have taken away the tradition of the G.Inglese brand from Italy and our country, thus canceling my origins, my traditions and my mission: that of giving dignity and value to artisan work.


In fact, this was a tradition present in our families until the 1960s because every woman owned one to make her own trousseau. Unfortunately, with the advent of large-scale industry, these looms were literally destroyed.


The stubbornness and tenacity of reviving this ancient art and creating the fabrics with which we will make the jackets and soft scarves, managing to weave the wool of Apulian sheep, will allow us to complete the supply chain, all Made in Puglia, made in Ginosa.

Our future project is to further strengthen the honor and dignity of this art and expand the offer with the creation of jackets made strictly by hand, according to the methods of the ancient tailoring tradition.
The aim is to pass on this art to the new generations with the opening of a tailoring school where we will start from the origin, to the creation of the fabric with the novelty of using the ancient hand looms.
This is our project: to recover young people from unemployment and recover the ancient crafts. Despite the various inconveniences and floods that hit our territory in 2014, especially the historic center, our projects continue, so as not to make our efforts in vain.
Angelo Inglese