The House — Since 1968
One pair of hands,
continued by twenty
An atelier devoted to crocodile and alligator — the hides, the hands, the hour.
Florence, 1968
From a single workshop above the Arno
POSSORRE began in a workshop barely large enough for two cutting tables. Giovanni Possorre had returned from a decade in Buenos Aires, where he had learned to read crocodile hides — to weigh them, stretch them, cut against the natural grain — under the eye of an Argentine master.
His first jacket was made for a friend; the second for a friend of a friend. By the early seventies, a small clientele had grown up around the workshop — patrons who returned, often years apart, for a single piece. That cadence has not changed.
Today the atelier still occupies the same building. The cutting tables are the originals. Several of the artisans were apprenticed by Giovanni himself, and have been here for more than thirty years.
The Atelier
Twenty pairs of hands.
One jacket.
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Selection
Hides are selected by hand at the tannery. We reject ninety percent.
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Cutting
Each panel is cut by the maestro cutter — never by machine, never by template.
03
Stitching
Saddle-stitched with waxed linen thread, two stitches per centimetre.
04
Finishing
Edges are hand-burnished. Each jacket signed and numbered by its maker.
A house built on trust
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Countries we work with
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Pieces we have sewn
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Years of craft
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Well-dressed clients
Materials
We work only with hides we can trace
Every crocodile and alligator hide we use is CITES-certified and fully traceable. We work with two tanneries — one in Singapore, one in Louisiana — both of which have supplied us for over twenty years.
Hides are selected for the regularity of the scale pattern, the depth of colour, and the suppleness of the belly. Roughly nine in ten of the hides we are offered are returned to the tannery.
Our shearling collars come from the Veneto. Our melton wool from a single mill outside Biella. The brass hardware is cast for us in Vicenza.
Commissions
Every piece is made for someone.
We accept a limited number of commissions each season. After an initial conversation — in person or remotely — we will take your measurements, present a selection of hides, and prepare a toile for fitting. From order to delivery is six to eight weeks.
Conversation
An initial brief — silhouette, colour, weight, lining.
Selection
Hides are reserved and a toile prepared for fitting.
Construction
Six to eight weeks. Final fitting included.
Worldwide Delivery
We ship insured, by hand, to fifty-two countries. Customs and CITES paperwork are prepared for you.
Lifetime Care
Bring your jacket back to us, ever. We will clean, recondition, and re-stitch at no charge.
Discretion
Client lists are confidential. We do not share your name, nor publish what you have ordered.
Visit
Where to find us
Our ateliers in Antalya and Istanbul. Come see the leather in person, or commission a piece in the same hands that make it.