“What is a woman doing in the oldest barbershop in Milan?”. It’s with this question that Corriere della Sera – one of the most important newspapers in Italy – opens a beautiful article dedicated to Antica Barbieria Colla, to its shop and its product line. And that woman is Francesca Bompieri who, following in her father Franco’s footsteps, has been running this place in the most historic part of Milan for years, with love and dedication. A true movement of “empowerment“, as the newspaper from Via Solferino defines it, to look to the future without ever forgetting the great tradition that has always distinguished the shop in Via Morone.
First, the newspaper described the typical atmosphere of the barbershop, that of the celebrity customers who, over the course of more than a century, have sat in the armchairs of Antica Barbieria Colla, treating themselves to a moment of relaxation. Because, as Francesca recalls, “at our place there is no background music, the only noise we like to hear is that of the scissors at work and the tram 1 passing over the tracks, a great Milanese touch“. There’s also great emphasis on the ABC Product Line, from our Herbal Conditioner to the Egg and Rum Shampoo, through all the solutions that have allowed the barbershop to enter a wider universe.
A more modern impetus desired by Francesca herself, as she explained to journalists: “While Franco was saying no to new economy characters in tattered jeans, I realised that we could open up to a wider clientele”. And with the comeback of beards and more “old school” cuts, as it has been for a few years now, Antica Barbieria Colla has become a point of reference for the younger generation as well. And, here too, women are once again protagonists: “It often happens that it is their women who decide the look of their partners”.