Transcript
Mr. Dino Colla was a gentleman from Ferrara, a very elegant man, very attentive to his exteriority. He had a series of important social connections and was able to create a very refined environment — an environment that certainly made a difference compared to the other barber shops that existed at that time in Milan.
He understood that a barber shop should not be just a place of services, but a place to welcome customers and pamper them. He wanted it to be a place where customers went to relax.
The first place where the barber shop was born was Via Manzoni, the absolute main street in the city at the beginning of the 1900s, which managed to attract inside the shop a whole series of personalities, who then slowly began to say that there were services of a certain type in this barber shop.
From there the fame grew, and then in 1922, taking more and more fame, it moved to Piazza della Scala — to be precise, Via Verdi number 2 — and there it began to have the moment of greater splendour that we have in the history of Barberia Colla, because the whole theatre was part of the social life of the city, and everyone who went to the theatre — both the spectators and even those who worked there — was a customer of Mr. Colla.
Unfortunately, in 1943 Milan was bombed, so at that point the barber shop had to close for nine months. Piazza della Scala was bombed, and Via Verdi number 2 as well. Let’s say that this was the saddest moment in this story, because for nine months everything stopped. But fortunately, in 1944 the barber shop reopened here in Via Morone number 3, where we are currently and where we continue to work to this day.