Thirty-five years and three generations of craftsmanship
The Origins
We began producing socks in Salento in 1991.
A land of olive trees, dry-stone walls, and people who work with their hands.
The hosiery mill was founded by our grandfather from a simple family-run artisanal idea — and by choice, it still is today.
Machines without any electronics, a manual process, and a simple principle: every pair that leaves here passes the eyes of those who know what they are looking for.
For thirty years, we produced for the Italian and European market, under other names, for large merchants and distributors, but in silence.
That school taught us discipline and precision.
But that was not who we wanted to be.
How did Italian Baroque originate?
Barocco Italiano was born from a precise and clear decision: to stop hiding.
We are Italian Artisans.
Every sock that leaves our hosiery factory is hand-stitched at the toe, checked pair by pair, and made with exceptional, top-quality yarns.
We do not automate what is best done by hand.
We do not rush our production at the expense of quality.
We make socks the way they were made when a pair of socks was a gift worthy of being given.
Craftsmanship, Tailoring, Attention to Detail, and Durability.
The Origins
1991
The hosiery mill was born in Salento, from the mind and the drive to differentiate of entrepreneur Luigi Mariani.
Mechanical machinery, zero electronics, zero software, hands, and the idea that one well-made sock is worth more than a thousand ordinary ones.
- The stock photo represents the first sock produced in 1991, affectionately kept in our archive
New Challenges - 90s to 2008
Growth and the great crisis
Hundreds of thousands of pairs are produced for the local and international market under other names, as third-party manufacturers.
From large-scale retail chains to Italian and European fashion houses.
2008 is the year that marks a major crisis in the entire Italian and global production market.
The national economic fabric is battered.
In Salento, dozens of small workshops and hosiery factories collapse under the blows of the financial and economic crisis of those years, leaving no way out.
2009-2023
The restart
The hosiery mill is now under the complete management of the family's second generation.
Producers from Southeast Asia are increasingly appearing in the European market, and competition is at an all-time high.
In 2020, Covid would also arrive to hinder sales worldwide.
However, a solid business model based on the choice to remain primarily Artisans, an always excellent product, and best-in-class customer service steered the Hosiery Mill through the crisis, further establishing it in the Hosiery market.
A new chapter
Italian Baroque
We are now the third generation of the family at the helm of the hosiery mill.
The desire was born to let the whole world know that Italian and Salento craftsmanship and tailoring are present, stronger than ever.
We have always been deeply connected to our territory, to the Art and Beauty that Lecce stone has had to tell through the centuries.
Thus, Barocco Italiano was born, a tribute to our origins, to Luxury Craftsmanship and to things done well, made to last as they once were.