Allegri was founded by the brothers Allegro and Renato Allegri who decided to diversify their investments and combined pasta making with clothing manufacture, going into business together with a firm in Empoli, Macri in 1954.
The Allegri brothers decided to develop the clothing manufacturing business by also involving their children: Allegro's Augusto and Dianora and Renato's son Pietro. In 1962, Finest was set up, a firm with between 15 and 20 employees located in Piazza San Rocco in Empoli which produced raincoats for wholesale channel.
It was during this time that the Allegri cousins decided to aim higher at the fashion target and major changes were made before and after 1970. They went to Paris, dreaming of adding know-how to their products, obtained information, took part in the presentations of the new looks, gained ideas and updated the models, working with quality pattern makers and leaving other producers in Empoli behind forever. In 1971, in line with the change in corporate strategy to "do fashion" and with the corporate/brand concept, Allegri S.p.A. was founded, located in Vinci in Via Oberdan.
At the same time the company made contact with a certain Armani, designer with Nino Cerruti's Hitman and for Montedoro and together they decided to create a small collection: Allegri by Giorgio Armani. It was Allegri by Giorgio Armani that took the company to the next level. In Germany, Switzerland and northern Europe these collections were a major success. Exports grew and the German, Swiss and northern European markets, approached in 1975, were joined in 1976 by France and the Benelux countries, in 1979 by the USA and in 1980 by Spain.
In the Eighties the first Allegri boutique opened in Via Tornabuoni in Florence and the first Allegri mono-brand showroom in Milan at Palazzo Serbelloni, a historical Napoleonic residence.
The Allegri cousins continued the designer partnerships, succeeding in signing the avant-garde French duo Marithé & François Girbaud, who added value to the Allegri collections with a sportswear content in addition to traditional raincoats with the creation of the Momento Due line. In the same year the business opened up to licences (Armani, Versace, Fendi) and, in order to separate management of the Allegri brand from that of the licences, the company Serena srl was set up in Via Limitese in Vinci.
A few years later Allegri opened up to the Japanese market, signing a licensing agreement with Sanyo which produced and resold items with the Allegri label. In 1989 the great boom of "Made in Italy" forced the Allegri cousins to concentrate their resources on developing their brand. These were the years of the first advertising campaigns in partnerships with the world-famous photographers Peter Lindberg, Albert Watson, Ferdinando Scianna and Herb Ritts.
In 1990, Allegri Corporation was created with offices in New York which enabled the brand to enter the best department and specialty stores. In the mid 1990s good results also came from Eastern Europe and Asia: the Crocus boutique in Moscow, and Lane Crawford in Hong Kong stocked Allegri products. During these years, thanks to work with Massimo Osti, the Allegri brand was joined by Left Hand developed Thermojoint: a nonwoven fabric made from pressed polyamide and polyester.
In 1992, the holding company Dismi 92 S.p.A. (Diffusione Sviluppo Moda Italiana) was set up in Via Limitese in Vinci. Dismi 92 S.p.A. incorporated Allegri S.p.A. and Serena srl and took a 100% share in Allegri Corporation. The design partnership during these years was assigned to the introverted and taciturn Belgian designer Martin Margiela. Allegri won an important international award from Meryl Nexten, the second-ranking company in the world for the production of raw materials. In 1998 the in-house design team launched the Allegri Weather Point line whose purpose was no longer to sell just outerwear but also a sportswear-inspired style of dress.
The Allegri label was thus segmented into two lines: Allegri, with a contemporary classic positioning, and Allegri Weather Point with a young and sporty positioning. During these years the Allegri cousins boosted the licences by signing in 1998 the licensing agreement with Neil Barrett and in 2001 that with Pirelli. In May 2004, the Allegri building was opened in Via Stendhal in Milan which meant the cousins were considered as pioneers of the Milan Fashion District. The following year a partnership agreement was signed with the Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf with their extraordinary creative capacity in the application of details and accessories on single products.
In 2009, Allegri has launched a complete restyling of the collections, aimed at giving a very specific positioning to its three product lines designed for a single consumer yet intended for different occasions: ALLEGRI 01 01 09, designed by Francesco Scognamiglio, for discreet luxury on smart occasions with a preference for noble materials, flanked by a more formal line, ALLEGRI MILANO, designed to meet day-to-day needs divided between work and travel for dynamic and intelligent dressing, and ALLEGRI A-Tech, a line introduced for leisure, highly technical and with the considerable innovation of high-performance materials, synonymous with functional coherence and hard-line design.
Design is currently assigned to the luxury specialist Mauro Ravizza Krieger, working alongside the Allegri in-house team. A new product evolution based on the innovation of tradition and a new claim for the brand: "The Architects of Fabrics". Nothing could be more appropriate for a company which since 1971 has experimented two thousand different fabrics in its production and has added the value of the brand as a distinctive feature to give consumers the standards of excellence which identify Allegri items for those who wear them.