The company was founded in 1983 on the initiative of Alberto Bardazzi: my father was the typical Prato citizen who strongly loved to live and laugh, but more than anything else he infinitely loved his work and was willing to take risks to try to become a number one in it. From the very beginning he sensed an inexplicably under-exploited market niche in knitted fabrics, a small world whose potential had not yet been fully understood: he decided that precisely in knitted fabrics he would express his talent, his stubbornness, and all the valuable experiences acquired as a boy in various mills. The results immediately proved him right, so much that in a few years he was forced to move twice into larger buildings; his idea was right, the demand for knitted fabrics grew from year to year, as the satisfaction of seeing his fabrics become real milestones in the history of fashion industry, not surprisingly also present in the museum of Prato fabrics. I remember my father's eyes overflowed with emotion, when the "Sole 24 ore" published the ranking of the 500 best Italian companies: there was also his creation, who was named after him, Alberto Bardazzi. The hard work of years, the dedication, the passion, the time spent, had produced fruits that even the national newspapers recognized.
None of my family could have imagined in the joy and light-heartedness of those years that soon quite different news would knock on our doors: shortly afterwards, in fact, Alberto would leave us, and forever, after a brief and inexorable illness, at the age just 52 years old. I cannot forget, on the day of his funeral, the extraordinary participation of everyone: wherever I turned I saw the faces of dozens of people who had shared with my father a piece of life’s road, an experience, a breakfast, a laugh.
Since then my mother and I have done everything possible to keep the company alive and prosperous. The years following his death, despite our good will, were obviously chaotic, anxious, full of doubts and errors, because a figure like my father is not easy to be replaced from one day to the next. Then, thanks also to the wonderful work team that we have inherited, the difficulties have gradually diminished and it has been amazing to see over the years my father's company, his creature, the Bardazzi returning to grow, to put on the market wonderful products again, return to breathe the air of Prato with vigor and to full lungs, that air saturated with the smells of treated, washed and dried fabrics, those smells without which Prato cannot exist and above all our work cannot exist ,our work, which has always been to make the most beautiful fabrics in the world.
