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For the time-being, there is a halt to its flight, when Alfonso dies in 1937.
It is his young,widowed wife who carries the enterprise on with great energy. The orders placed by the army help to get through the gruelling times of the 2nd World War until in 1945 Tanino reaches maturity and steps in.
From the name to the trademark.
It is the post-war period.Casteggio has been hit hard.The French term "Griffe" for designer labels is as yet unheard of and incomprehensible even to a French teacher:Tanino, however already holds the concept in his head.The Crisci shoe-manufacturing company, as we have seen, was born on the wave of the industrialisation of the shoe industry.It now about-faces and choses an entirely different direction, almost a step backwards towards its roots.It purposefully chooses the policy of artisanal production, manufacturing small numbers and involving a high level of hands-on craftswork.
The same sheds which saw the triumph of the sewing machine now host a "small-series" style of production favouring only first-rate materials.The firm becomes Tanino Crisci Srl and ( here lies its greatest innovation) opens its first own-name outlet.These are revolutionary innovations for the Oltrepò bankers to the point that, fearing a commercial disaster,they are alarmed over the bizzarre direction the firm has chosen.
However,Tanino proves himself only to have been far-sighted.He expands his range of men's footwear to include ladies' footwear , opens a public outlet in Casteggio and in Stradella and then makes the great leap to Milan in Via Montenapoleone; but with the inside address of No.13; almost as if not daring to presume too much.
Success,however, is such that in the early 70's the shop moves to No.3 with its lovely shop window fronting the Montenapoleone thoroughfare where the jet set passes by.These are the years of frenzy over the straight-legged boot. Women cannot live without them and for Tanino these articles bring golden reapings which transform into the openings of new own-name stores in Rome and Florence and then on to Paris, New York and Tokyo.The last store to be opened ( or rather the latest) was in London.
In the meanwhile Tanino Crisci, acting wisely, at the age of retirement,has chosen to leave the firm in the hands of his son Alfonso who has broadened the range of their brand products; their shoe lines have seen the addition of handbags,cases,wallets and purses, and even silk ties and headscarves which, naturally enough, are not all manufactured in Casteggio but are produced by their collaborators following company designs.


::behind ahead ::


     
   
TANINO CRISCI . Via Montenapoleone, 3 . 20121 MILANO