“In the beginning there was water. It carries the flow of life. It creates…”
This is how In Flumine est vita, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Herno, summarises the praise for the sublime element that animates the brand, water. Whether in the river or the lake, the rain or the fog, the snow or humidity, it is the muse that inspired the quintessential high-performance product with which it all began and it all continues: the raincoat.
It was from that 1948 cotton, treated with castor oil from planes abandoned by the war, that a young Giuseppe Marenzi and his wife Alessandra Diana sensed the possibility of setting up a business. And from the beginning, with the urgency and enthusiasm typical of that period of great ferment that was the post-war period in Italy, experimentation and innovation permeated Herno’s vocation.
The coexistence with the water of the lake and the river took shape and became functional first in jackets and then high-performance coats, well designed, crafted with superior workmanship as can only be found in Italy, and also useful to protect oneself against the cold and find shelter against the rain, the northern wind and the humidity of the lake region. That’s what water is for Herno: connection, love, passion, challenge, ingenuity. And success.
After the raincoats, in the mid-1950s there were also women’s garments, reversible, hand-woven cashmere coats. In 1968 Herno was already overseas in the east, in Japan, with boutiques in Osaka and then Tokyo. Then it made its way to the US in the early 1980s.
And the art of Herno’s production became so well-recognised and valued that in the 90s the emerging brands of those years – which later became famous – entrusted their production to the company.
And they were the most famous of the French and Italian brands. At Herno, quality and investment in the means of production have always been on the cutting edge, the signature of a company that in the 2000s returned to embrace the change in production processes with a know-how that was essentially unique and strongly Made in Italy. And it dusted off its brand, the one that bears the name of the river that flows under the company.
