Jill Medinger[portfolio_slideshow id=7080]
Alessandro Albanese remains true to his roots and understated aesthetic.
PHOTOS BY Jonas Matyassy
I noticed the impeccable work of Alessandro Albanese long before I met him. It was during a business lunch, where I sat across from a fashionable colleague wearing an exquisitely tailored jacket with an equestrian cut. We went our separate ways, but the cut, flawless fit, and quality of the jacket made such an impression on me that I Googled the physical description of the logo on the pocket and discovered Italian equestrian-apparel designer Alessandro Albanese.
An interview followed, and I discovered a talented, passionate, and charismatic man with just the right balance of self-assurance and humility. He was happily immersed in the equestrian world, but it wasn’t always that way.Alessandro grew up in Turin, Italy, and embodies much of what one con-siders quintessentially Italian. More succinctly, he can put on a T-shirt and jeans and make them transcendent. He sees beauty everywhere—in architecture, art, fashion, and the exquisite craftsman-ship and attention to detail that is rooted in Italy’s design heritage.
He was an engineer for the first 10years of his business career. “I was working as a project manager designing cars, aircraft, and that kind of thing, but it wasn’t my real destiny,” said Alessandro. “Envision this person who goes to his office every day, week after week. It’s dark when you go into the office in the morning and dark when you go home—you rarely see sunlight. This was my life for 10 years”.
But quite unexpectedly, an opportu-nity was presented to Alessandro while he was on a beach holiday in Italy. He met a man who wanted to expand his line of equestrian riding boots outside of Italy. He was en route to a horse show in France, but he didn’t speak the language, so he invited Alessandro, who was fluent in French, to go with him. It was there that he got his first glimpse into the equestrian world.