Leather gloves are made and fitted on-site at Madova, near Florence's Ponte Vecchio, continuing a family business since 1919. Trussardi began in Bergamo in 1911 as a leather glove workshop before expanding into other leather goods. The house adopted its greyhound emblem in 1973, marking a later stage in the development of its range. In northern Naples, Artigiano del Guanto continues Giovanni Ricciardiello's workshop tradition, hand-stitching gloves for the family's own line.
Family-run since 1919 near Florence's Ponte Vecchio, Madova has produced leather gloves exclusively across three generations, from founder Amedeo Donnini to today's four siblings. Every pair is still made and fitted on site at Via Guicciardini 1R.
Best for Leather gloves in every color, made and fitted on site in Florence
Madova was founded in 1919 by Amedeo Donnini, whose small Florence workshop made leather gloves for the city's prominent families and shops. Production stopped during the economic crisis and the Second World War, and the business did not reopen until 1945, when Amedeo's children — Ennio, Sergio, Rosanna and Maria — revived it and, in 1954, opened the retail shop and registered the Madova trademark that carries the family name to this day.
The shop sits on Via Guicciardini, the street that runs directly to the Ponte Vecchio, and the family describes itself as one of the only glovemakers left in Europe that both sells and produces exclusively leather gloves rather than diversifying into other accessories. That single-material focus has defined the house across its history: cutting, lining and finishing are done in-house, and customers are still fitted by hand at the counter rather than choosing by size chart alone.
Madova is now run by a fourth generation — Mauro, Franco, Andrea and Silvia — who have kept the workshop's original scope: leather gloves in a wide range of colors and linings, exported to the United States, Europe and Japan. Over a century after Amedeo Donnini's founding, the business remains what it started as: a single-family, single-product glove shop a few steps from one of Florence's most photographed bridges.
Trussardi began in Bergamo in 1911 as a fine leather glove workshop, later expanding into Milan's leather-luxury lifestyle house. Its greyhound emblem, adopted in 1973, has marked the brand across a century of Italian leather goods.
Best for Greyhound leather goods.
Trussardi began in Bergamo in 1911 as a glove workshop — Dante Trussardi's fine leather gloves supplied royal houses and, eventually, the Italian army — and the greyhound that became its emblem in 1973 announced the transformation: grandson Nicola Trussardi turned a glover into Milan's leather-lifestyle house, among the first Italian labels to think in total-brand terms, from bags to cars' interiors to restaurants.
Nicola's instinct for spectacle made the greyhound a Milanese fixture — he staged fashion's first show at La Scala and turned Piazza della Scala's Palazzo Trussardi into a cultural salon with a Michelin-starred café. The leather goods carried the argument: saffiano-textured bags and accessories built with glove-maker fineness.
The family era ended gradually — tragedy took Nicola in 1999 and his son Francesco in 2003; daughters Beatrice and Gaia carried it forward before investors took control. The house today is smaller than its myth, but the myth is the asset: a century of Italian leather, one lean silver dog.
Artigiano del Guanto traces to a workshop in northern Naples run by Giovanni Ricciardiello, described on the brand's own site as a "master glove maker for 50 years" carrying forward the city's old Neapolitan glove-making families.
Best for A family-run Naples workshop hand-stitching gloves for its own line
Artigiano del Guanto traces to a workshop in northern Naples run by Giovanni Ricciardiello, described on the brand's own site as a "master glove maker for 50 years" carrying forward the city's old Neapolitan glove-making families. In 2016 the laboratory was renewed and rebranded under its current name, with Ricciardiello's children — Francesco, Mimmo, and Flora — joining to modernize production and bring the house to a wider market without moving it out of Naples.
The process described is fully manual: leather is dampened and stretched using water-soaked cloths, cut and embroidered by hand, and joined using several traditional stitch types — stroke, hand-stitching, piquet, and saddle stitch — before hand-lining with thermal hands and manual hemming. Materials span African lamb, South American carpincho, Peruvian peccary, Canadian deer, and sheep leather, a materials range consistent with a house working across both fine dress gloves and sturdier everyday pairs.
The workshop states it produces gloves for Giorgio Armani, MaxMara, Coccinelle, and Pinko, which places it as a manufacturing partner to fashion houses as well as a maker selling under its own name — a dual role common among the Naples glove families that once supplied Milan and Paris from the same benches. Alongside Omega, it belongs to Naples' continuing glove-making tradition.
Gala Gloves has hand-stitched leather gloves in Naples since 1930, founded by Anna and Raffaele Muscariello and now carried on by Alessandro Pellone across three generations. Materials include carpincho, peccary and deerskin leathers, with linings in cashmere, silk and wool.
Naples menswear brand tracing to 1986, when Domenico and Enzo Menniti founded glove maker PDM with partners Paolo and Massimo Montefusco; added swimwear in 1993, opened its first boutique in 2000, and kept production in Naples.
Best for Dachshund polos, colourful
Harmont & Blaine's history begins in 1986, when Domenico Menniti founded a company called PDM together with his brother Enzo Menniti and business partners Paolo and Massimo Montefusco, initially producing leather gloves. The business expanded into ready-to-wear in 1993 with a first collection of swimming trunks, then broadened further in 1995 to include shirts, trousers and sweaters. Its first standalone boutique opened in 2000 in Frattamaggiore, in the Naples area, where the brand's production remains concentrated. The dachshund became the company's logo and mascot. Harmont & Blaine now sells internationally through both standalone stores and shop-in-shops, including locations in US shopping centers operated by Simon Property Group.
Italguanto is run by the Pistola family in the historic glove-makers' quarter of Naples, where Antonio now manages production with his sons Michele and Mario. The workshop selects fine leathers and finishes and sews each glove by hand.
Omega was founded in Naples in 1923 by Gennaro Squillace and is now led by Alberto Squillace, the fifth generation of the family to run it — a continuity the house itself describes as unbroken since founding.
Best for A century-old Naples family glove factory
Omega was founded in Naples in 1923 by Gennaro Squillace and is now led by Alberto Squillace, the fifth generation of the family to run it — a continuity the house itself describes as unbroken since founding. It operates out of the Sanità neighborhood, part of the historic Naples glove-making district that grew up around the street still called Via dei Guantai Nuovi, where whole families once specialized in one of the many hand steps a glove requires.
That step count is central to how Omega describes its own process: the site states its gloves pass through "25 production stages, each carried out strictly by hand," from tanning and coloring done at workshops near Vesuvius to cutting, sewing, and quality checks completed in the Naples atelier itself. Leathers include plongé lamb, peccary, carpincho, and deer, lined in silk or in cashmere sourced from Biella; production is kept deliberately small and the house supplies haute couture clients internationally.
Naples' glove trade is UNESCO-recognized as a rare craft, and Omega is presented on its own site as the oldest glove factory still operating in the city — a claim consistent with the 1923 founding date and the unbroken family line to today. It welcomes visitors interested in seeing the craft directly, which fits an atlas built around houses that can be visited, not just ordered from.
London-designed, Turin-made coats: siblings Giulia and Aldo Acchiardi launched the label in 2010, producing in their family's Piedmont tailoring factory, running since 1928 (originally ladies' gloves).
Best for Wool coats
Harris Wharf London was launched in 2010 by siblings Giulia and Aldo Acchiardi, who design the collection in London while manufacturing it in their family's factory in Turin, Piedmont. The factory dates to 1928, when the Acchiardi grandparents used it to produce ladies' gloves, before the family later moved into garment tailoring. The brand's identity rests on British design paired with an Italian production line the family has controlled for close to a century, applied mainly to outerwear: unlined, unfussy coats and jackets. The company is stocked through a network of multi-brand retailers across Europe.
Founded in 1999 by Franco Zanellato, who grew up in his father's Vicenza glove factory; the Postina bag, launched in 2011, reworks a 1950s Italian postman's satchel and is about 70% hand-assembled.
Best for The Postina bag.
Zanellato was founded in 1999 by Franco Zanellato, who grew up around his father's glove factory in Vicenza and trained there in leather craftsmanship. The brand initially focused on men's leather goods — briefcases, gloves, and belts — through the early 2000s, a period Zanellato later described as ahead of the market's readiness for his design approach. He then expanded into women's accessories while keeping the same emphasis on functional, work-oriented design. The turning point came in 2011 with the Postina bag, which reworks the classic Italian postal carrier's satchel of the 1950s — a shape Zanellato said he had 'collected various examples' of and kept returning to in his sketches. The bag is roughly 70% hand-assembled on individual work benches, with each unit taking about one hour and forty minutes to complete in naturally tanned leather; more than 60,000 are sold annually at a retail price around €600. The company today also produces the Mondà bucket bag, the A'Spasso shopper, and the Dotta, working across smooth, laminated, hammered, printed, and nubuck leather finishes. Its base remains in Vicenza's leather district, distinct from the more commonly cited Padua-area trade.
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗