MANFILM – A Family Story Between Kenya, England, Hong Kong and Italy
ORIGINS
The history of Manfilm is rooted well before the company’s official foundation in 1986.
It developed within an international context spanning continents and generations, bringing Eastern textile tradition into dialogue with Italian artisanal expertise.
The earliest influences date back to the 1940s and are linked to George Wright-Nooth, born in Kenya within a context connected to colonial England. After completing his training at a military academy in England, Wright-Nooth moved to Hong Kong, where he held command roles in service of the British Crown.
This direct contact with the East, shaped within an environment defined by rigour, structure and international vision, marked the origin of a deep connection with Asia and with silk culture. An intangible cultural and methodological legacy that would later play a decisive role in shaping Manfilm’s identity and manufacturing approach.
My father, Giuseppe Piovesan, born in Veneto in 1938, married my mother Deborah, a model and fashion designer, daughter of George Wright-Nooth.
From this union, two worlds come together: the elegance of Eastern silk and the Italian artisanal tradition. A natural dialogue between cultures, sensibilities, and knowledge, rooted in the land of Marco Polo, a symbol of travel, exchange, and the Silk Road.
It is within this human and cultural interweaving that the foundations of Manfilm’s identity are established.
MEETING OF CULTURES
Over the years, these international roots have intertwined with Italian artisanal tradition, giving rise to a vision that brings together elegance, material culture, and design sensibility.
The encounter between the aesthetics of Eastern silk and Italian manufacturing know-how lays the foundation for an approach that views material as a cultural value, in symbolic continuity with the history of the Silk Road and with the legacy of exchange between East and West.
BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF MANFILM
In 1986, Manfilm was founded in Milan as the concrete expression of a cultural and production-driven journey developed over time, with the aim of creating a stable bridge between Italy and China.
From the very beginning, the company specialised in silk, a noble fibre par excellence since the time of the Chinese emperors, chosen not only for its aesthetic value but also for its technical complexity and expressive potential.
Manfilm developed an approach in which material, structure and design engage in a balanced dialogue: fabric is not conceived as a simple support, but as the central element of the creative project.
Form, surface and construction become tools of language, capable of translating textile culture and contemporary sensibility.
