Telling the story of Blanc Mariclo’ means going through the memories of our family, retracing a tale that spans almost 100 years.
Each person, with their individual talents and characteristics, brought changes and transformed the company.
Family events are intertwined with the bright encounters and extraordinary events that have shaped our journey.
Alberto Federighi, our great-grandfather, started his business by trading fabrics, in particular, pieces of oilcloth in Santa Maria a Monte (Pisa).
He was a tall, handsome, righteous soul, definitely what we would call a traditionalist, but with great bursts of modernity acquired during his extended trips to the United States.
Enrico Federighi, our grandfather, continued his father’s business with his brother.
He was born in California, in Stirling City, in 1912. He was a handsome man too with an entrepreneurial spirit and continued to go back and forth between Italy and the United States.
His letters show us that he was a person with a passionate and generous soul, his long crossings on Vulcania, the desire to explore new worlds combined with the hope to come back home.
The way I love you now seems different from the past, as what I feel now eclipses the past.
Nonno Enrico bought his first business premises in the Pontedera area immediately after the war.
The city suffered massive bombings and struggled to recover. Trade had stopped, and the shops were closed.
Nonno Enrico took over one of them and started a new business by selling what in dialect were called pannine: pieces of fabrics and waxed rags.
Until the 70s we only sold fabrics, there was no packaged product, neither of linen nor of clothing: the shops were only haberdasheries or pannine stores.
E. & M. Federighi was part of Pontedera’s bustling trade district, where Piaggio was converted into a motorcycle factory, and several wholesale companies were based.
Our father, Roby, joins the company. He had a natural flair for sales, one of those men who enjoy themselves and have fun during negotiations with clients and suppliers.
He was also a great motivator, able to spread inspiration and confidence among his employees. With him, Federighi broadened its horizons and set out to support the production of packaged linen with the historical trade in fabrics and waxed pieces.
If we exclude the rare prodigious moments that destiny can give us, loving our work is the best accurate approximation to happiness on earth. I had a nightmare, I dreamed of a silent company, without orders. I woke up and realized that we are leaving again for a long journey. [...] We will produce and distribute ’the beautiful’, ’the dreams’. [...] It will be a beautiful journey. Everything will be fine. I promise.
In a family business, each child who enters carries a little of himself by creating new trajectories.
On November 4, the Era river broke its banks and flooded Pontedera. Most city businesses suffered damage.
Father and grandfather Enrico, together with their employees, managed to save a good part of the goods and do not lose heart.
The thought runs to Florence and the mud angels.
In his free time, our father dreamed of letting us grow up far from the city, surrounded by nature and animals. He looked for a bigger house and, with our mother, found a ruined barn in the countryside of Treggiaia.
It was love at first sight! He decided to buy and restructure it. He could never have imagined that his dream, more than 30 years later, would have remained so vivid as to become ours: Borgo Blanc MariClo’.
Teach your children to love nature, to enjoy the light, the free-flowing wind. Agriculture is science, it is art, it is life, it is wealth, it is everything.
The company grew and opened up to large commercial groups: with the Antiche Cotonerie linen line and a first-order signed with Panorama of Mestre, we became a national and European supplier of GDO.
We moved to the country house chosen by our parents. Around the house, everything seemed to be reborn. Our parents focused on the search for ancient roses.
Next to the roses, the vegetable garden, where potatoes, courgettes, tomatoes and a bit of everything grew. The sunflower fields on one side, the cultivation of poplars on the other, the beets across the river.
If we close our eyes, we have the impression of seeing each other there again, with Alcibiades and Ophelia, our beloved animals.
From Isle Sur la Souge to Luberon, from Aix en Provence to Valensole. In this period, we travelled often to Provence with our parents.
Viviana, our mother, was an art lover and she shared all her love for the markets and for the search for unique pieces with us.
An imperfect item of furniture that tells a story, old linen to use as a table runner, a floral pattern to create an atmosphere, a handmade basket and a puff of lavender. Together with some of our dearest memories, in these years, we built our style alongside our mother.
After university, it was our turn to join the company: a generational transition that marked a significant change.
We had in mind our idea of home, made of delicate and welcoming atmospheres, Provencal inspirations and love for the Tuscan countryside. We brought this idea into the company and everything changed.
The production of linen became more exclusive and refined. For the first time, furnishing accessories became an integral part of the collections.
The old annexe of the family farmhouse was transformed into a laboratory where we restored shabby chic style furniture. Blanc was born and, in the same year, we launched the first single-brand store in Florence.
Dreams are the energy of our daily commitment.
In the wake of our store in Florence, the first Blanc stores in franchising were born: Empoli, Viareggio, Pontedera, Turin.
The idea of transforming “sisterhood” into one of the core values of our brand became even stronger: here, Blanc becomes Blanc MariClo’.
Blanc as white, Mari Clo’ as Mariangela and Claudia.
In Florence, Claudia met a particular, creative and unique girl. She asked her to take care of the visual aspect of the Blanc MariClo’ catalogues and campaigns: her name is Enrica Mannari.
Together with her and the talented photographer Andrea Vierucci, our visual communication was renewed and an entirely original graphic appearance was created.
For the first time we participated in Macef: it is the beginning of a long series of fairs that, twice a year, take us from Milan to Paris, from Madrid to Birmingham.
The photos of that first fair give us the exact measure of the path we have travelled so far. They also renew the love for what has always been part of our style: the boutis, the matching sets in natural colours, the pickled-finished furniture with wavy lines, the wrought iron furnishings, the informal and chic atmosphere of our idea of home.
The family is expanded: the children grow up in the company, where we breastfeed and work until the ninth month.
Just as we did in the past, our children jump on the stacked rugs, come to visit their grandfather and turn the desks into their toy bench.
Being women and mothers inspired us to create the Baby Blanc line, today renamed Mini Blanc: linen, accessories, gifts and furniture designed for the little ones.
After designers and stylists, bloggers join the company. The first is Federica Piccinini of Sweet as a Candy: the article dedicated to Blanc MariClo’ becomes a regular appointment on her blog, and Federica does some photoshoots in the family farmhouse.
During one of these, a heavy snowfall occurs. The house turns into a fairytale setting but the traffic goes haywire, and we get stuck on the train for five hours.
Federica spends the night at Mariangela’s house who still remembers that day as complicated but magical and memorable.
Blanc MariClo’ appears on cinema screens with “A perfect family”, a film by Paolo Genovese with Sergio Castellitto, Francesca Gerini, Carolina Crescentini and Francesca Neri.
We decorated the entire country villa that frames the movie and, at its launch, we rent a cinema in Florence to watch it all together: family, employees and collaborators.
In the same year, we also see to the furnishings of another movie set: the little Flora’s bedroom in “La mafia uccide solo d’estate”, a movie starring and directed by Pif.
We count on Giuli & Giordi for four videos inspired by the seasons: the story of the thread that bring us together, comes out scene after scene.
Dall'amore per la casa e la famiglia, nasce una nuova linea: i detergenti del Borgo. Detersivi per il bucato e le stoviglie, ammorbidenti, acque demineralizzate e spray per tessuti con profumazioni delicate e durature.
Tutti I detergenti del Borgo hanno una formulazione concentrata ma al tempo stesso biodegradabile ed ecosostenibile. Sono il frutto di una produzione tutta italiana ottenuta da materie prime di alta qualità, attenta alle esigenze dell’ambiente e delle persone, pensata per il risparmio e la riduzione degli sprechi.
Fare il bucato, stirare e lavare i piatti non è mai stato così dolce e profumato!
A sweet thread that inspires us, that unites us to the past and ties us to the present. Between art and tradition, looking to the future ...
The guesthouse is transformed into a shabby technique laboratory on the occasion of the workshop with Sara Tognetti, creator of the blog Shabby Chic Interiors.
While grandmother’s furniture and the objects forgotten in the garret come back to life thanks to an accurate restyling and a pickled whitewash finish, Lucia Rizzi, famous as Nanny Lucia of SOS Tata, appears sitting on one of our benches in the Napisan TV advert.
It’s workshop time again: in the superb 18th-century premises of Torre a Cona, Francesca Blasi, blogger of Creazione d’atmosfere, guides the participants in the reinterpretation of the shabby chic pickled finish combined with the technique of modern dusting.
Blanc MariClo’ makes its TV debut with the set design of Bake off Italia: Cristina Parodi, Ernst Knam, and Clelia d’Onofrio lead the competition for wannabe pastry chefs in our shabby chic settings: the combo looks perfect!
Shabby Chic is a style made to welcome and caress.
Csaba dalla Zorza chooses our parents’ farmhouse as the set for some photographs for her book “Around Florence”.
It is a thrill for us to meet Csaba and, during the reconstruction of family recipes, we are reminded the importance to celebrate the bond with one’s roots.
We introduce our first capsule collection of lingerie and sleepwear that can also be worn during the day.
The photographer Monia Merlo takes care of the image, creating an ethereal and neo-romantic photoshoot.
For the first time, we exhibit at the Salone del Mobile in Milan with a collection inspired by the theatrical sets of “La Traviata”.
In the same year, we launch our single-brand store in the Brera area, in Via dell’Orso 6.
We launch “Urban princess”, the fashion line for down-to-earth but dreamy women, always busy but eager to fully experience their femininity with panache and originality.
Garments with a light and romantic style, made of bows, flashy accessories, fluttering fabrics and tulle skirts combined with faux fur collars and soft sweaters.
Magic is not made by a wand, but by our creativity, our fabrics and our style
We make a dream come true: the family home is transformed into our new company headquarters.
A place of the heart that guides us and to which we return to represent the essence of Blanc MariClo’: the poetry of everyday life, the creation of collections inspired by a welcoming, warm, love-filled home.
From the love of home and family, a new line is born: Borgo detergents. Detergents for laundry and dishes, fabric softeners, demineralised water and fabric sprays with delicate and long-lasting fragrances.
All of Borgo's detergents have a concentrated yet biodegradable and eco-friendly formulation. They are the result of a Made in Italy production from high quality raw materials, attentive to the needs of the environment and people, designed to save money and reduce waste.
Doing laundry, ironing and washing dishes has never been sweeter or smellier!
We left a long time ago to discover the world... We found a love for the home.
CO-FOUNDER
"We win together"
When I started Blanc MariClò toghether with my sister Claudia, I was determined to create a line for the home that was romantic and country at the same time, because it did reflect my story, my life where I was born.
The Tuscan Country, where I lived and surraounded me, was my inspiration. The name Blanc Mariclò and its logo were created and hand designed in our first store in Florence, where I still remember being seated on the floor with no chairs nor furnitures among dust and rubbles.
Today, mum of 3 and continuously travelling, I get my inspirations from countries aroud the world, and from fashion..which is always in movement…a bit like me...
CO-FOUNDER
"It's only rock and roll but i like it."
As perhaps all women, I am millions of seemingly contrasting things together: I like playing piano but I also love rock music, classical dance but also snowboarding. I love being in the country, and the season I prefer is autumn.
Everyone says that Mariangela and I are very similar, but we feel very different even if we have those identical and strong principles that guide us in dealing with life and therefore also work.
Blanc MariClò is the expression of ourselves. Creativity is something very close to its essence and every new collection is always a bit to reveal ourselves. The inspirations are the result of study, research, curiosity.