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.