“In the imagination of all of us, Signor Nino was eternal, it is shocking to know that now he is no longer there.” Because Mr. Nino, as the employees have always called him and as the head of personnel Enrico Correale called him, used to go to the company every day, until he was admitted to the Vercelli hospital for hip surgery. The complications that took place took away yesterday Nino Cerruti, 91, the most international of the Biellese entrepreneurs, the stylist, the talent breeder, the costume designer of the stars, the man of the jet set, at home in Hollywood as in Paris.
The news of his death was a shock not only for Correale, who immediately communicated it to all workers via Whatsapp, but for the entire city. He was an industry captain by now a minority shareholder of his company, but always present: “Lucid, hard when necessary, but always extraordinarily human – recalls Correale, who has worked with him in recent times but also from 2000 to 2006 -. He was recently concerned about the health of his employees. He asked if everyone was okay, if there were infections, he told me “be careful, you who go around the wards and meet so many people”. There were ailments, but he was always extremely informed about today’s world, about politics as well as about the economy. And he was also very interested in the workers who had some problems: he asked, he inquired ».
His latest invention, explained to La Stampa in the interview published on 20 July 2021, was the patches of the author on the holes of the jackets. An idea: “And it will certainly not be the last,” he said, underlining his age of “90 and a half years”.
It may also be for this reason that in Lanificio, where they believed him to be eternal, they now find it difficult to accept reality: because his ideas will be lacking, although Correale swears that “Signor Nino will always be with us”. The president of the industrialists, Giovanni Vietti, says that “a visionary, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time” leaves with Cerruti: “With him a piece of history of textiles disappears, a true leader, a man who has never been in the rear ». In fact, in September, he had participated in the assembly of the local Confindustria, curious as always and about the piece as always: “His stature was international – adds Vietti -, he was the first to have intuitions then copied by everyone, such as that of launching a line of perfumes linked to a fashion brand. His disappearance is a very serious loss ».
Among the first to cry publicly Nino Cerruti was also the Biella-based vice minister for economic development, Gilberto Pichetto: “The death of the manager and designer Nino Cerruti pains me a lot: with him a giant of Italian entrepreneurship and a significant piece of Biella history goes away . I will always remember him with affection and esteem, for his intuitions, competence and foresight with which he made Italian fashion great, exporting our made in Italy to the world ». The funeral home will be open today from 2 to 5 pm in the funeral home of the Defabianis company, in Strada Santa Maria di Campagnate in Biella. The funeral will be held privately.