Interview

• What was your training?

  When I finished school, I didn’t really want to keep studying. Thanks to my father’s connections, I found work as an apprentice in a small leather working company. There, I became adept at decorating the “cuoietto fiorentino” with gold: I liked this work very much.

• What time period was all this taking place?

  It was the second post-war period. At that time, everything was easier: in the years of the economic boom, it was very easy to start a new company. So, together with my brother Roberto, two years younger than me, we founded Fratelli Peroni.

• Which kind of leather do you use for your products?

  We use vegetable tanned calf leather with natural tannins. We hand paint with natural colours – the result is a biodegradable product, with no toxic or harmful substances for humans or the environment. We also work precious skins, such as crocodile, stingray and python.

• Could your craft be considered in danger?

  Yes. First of all, hand-made products are more expensive than the industrial ones. Then, we have fewer and fewer young people in the workshops, which will have, in the next few years, fewer specialists and fewer skilled craftsmen.