Casa Manteco opens, a space that tells the story of a company, its history and its territory
In its Montemurlo headquarters, the wool mill inaugurates an itinerary, signed by Formafantasma, to narrate its origins and projects. And re-launches the historic Casentino cloth
by Chiara Beghelli
Despite being treasure troves of history, research and culture, textile companies of excellence rarely invest in recounting their heritage: Manteco has done so instead, with courage and conviction, as a protagonist of the Prato district and a symbol of how a company can at the same time be both guardian and renewer of the historical excellence of its territory.
-U60816244470KzJ-600x313@IlSole24Ore-Web.jpg)
The new 'Casa Manteco' space at the company headquarters in Montemurlo is a place where six different areas tell the story of Manteco, founded by Enzo Mantellassi in 1943, its present and its research: in the Gallery the story of the Mantellassi family, now in its third generation, is retraced with interesting period documents; in the scenic Fabric Room one can discover Manteco's creations, touching them with one's own hands, as in the Archive, created in a former spinning mill; in the Studio one can follow the creative process of the fabrics and in the Circularity Lab Manteco's research for circularity, which passes through products such as MWool, ReviWool and the MCashmere, all made from recycled and recovered materials, appreciating the Recype process, which makes it possible to obtain yarns of thousands of colours by mechanically mixing fibres from recycled materials. Finally, the Garden, a place of connection with nature and a space for sharing.
The design and layout of Casa Manteco have been taken care of by the Milan-based Formafantasma studio, with which the Tuscan company came into contact when collaborating on the wool exhibition ('Oltre terra', the title was in Italian) organised three years ago in Norway at the National Museum in Oslo. The new spaces are open to Manteco's customers, who can thus come into deeper contact with the company and its products, but also to enthusiasts and students.
"The inauguration of Casa Manteco was greeted with great enthusiasm,' says Matteo Mantellassi, who runs the company together with his brother Marco. 'Every day we are already receiving many requests from schools, not only from Italy, but from all over the world, even from South America and Asia. It is a project that tells our story together with that of the district, in which we are also inserted with our network of MSystem companies, a certified and traced zero kilometre supply chain'. A bond that finds its place at Casa Manteco with the space reserved for Casentino cloth, a historic Tuscan production that Manteco helped preserve from extinction by taking over the Casentino Lane wool mill in Bibbiena in 2023 .
Just in these days, after three years of work and reorganisation (and preserving the approximately 35 employees), the first yarns are ready: 'It is a traditional product into which we want to infuse our values, bringing circularity, traceability, transparency,' adds Mantellassi. Manteco closed 2025 'with a turnover of 85.5 million, and 2026 has opened very well so far, with an increase in orders of 13-14%, despite the delicate and uncertain moment that the fashion industry is experiencing'.
