Corriere della sera: Air Collection, embroidery for luxury Made in Italy

In recent years, haute couture made in Italy has rediscovered the value of embroidery as an element capable of embellishing any garment or accessory.

This explains the strong demand from luxury brands, which has led to the vertical growth of Air Collection, a company from Prato specialising in embroidery on leather and fabrics with more than 30 years' experience. In fact, it was Alessandro Calamai and Rossella Monica Scatizzi, already with a solid experience in the sector, who founded Air Collection in 2011.

"From the three employees at the beginning, we have grown to 42 today,' explains Michael Calamai, who with his sister Désirée represents the second generation in the company. 'The first few years were characterised by constant growth, but the real turning point came in 2016, when the demands multiplied, forcing us to continuously expand our business and move three times in the space of a few years.

"Faced with this great growth, we made decisive strategic choices, because we didn't want to bite off more than we can chew," says Désirée Calamai, "We favoured the relationship of close collaboration and service offered to our customers.

One of our strengths is the graphic design studio we have at our disposal, always aiming to offer samples where creativity and innovation stimulate our customers to propose new challenges for us to tackle together.

For our part, in addition to the competence of our staff, we deploy production technology that is always up-to-date. In this sense, our partnership with Studio Auriga is important, as they are always able to provide us with machinery tailored to our type of production.

Working for luxury brands, after all, imposes precise rules and above all very high quality standards'.

Air Collection works mainly in the leather goods sector, especially shoes, bags and accessories, but also in clothing.

"Production times are decisive,' Désirée explains, 'the fashion industry travels faster and faster, imposing very intense rhythms on us. Our good fortune has been to find young, motivated staff, who alongside some veterans learn the trade. All this in a very serene atmosphere which, thanks to the young age of all of us, we have managed to establish in the company'.