Meeting a successful business leader, you would expect a conversation around the business. Instead, with Giuseppe Santoni, you hear about souls, the memory held in the hands of an artisan, about beauty as something that endures, and somewhere in that lies the secret to everything Santoni has built. And why, decades later, it continues to last.

Born into a legacy of handmade craft in Corridonia, Marche, Giuseppe Santoni has spent his life deepening what his father Andrea built. The result is a house that has never needed to lose its foundation. It carried its legacy forward with authenticity over the years and across the oceans, and has now found a home in the GCC. This is The Craft of Always. And this is the man behind it.

Delna Mistry Anand: You were just a child when your father Andrea founded Santoni in Corridonia; what are your earliest memories of truly understanding what he was building?

Giuseppe Santoni: Santoni was never a company for me, it was an extended family. I didn't understand it at first, but I felt it. I grew up surrounded by hands at work, and I knew that the artisans were, and remain, its true soul. I had always felt a profound sense of belonging, like an unspoken bond made of shared purpose and pride.

Only later I realised that what my father was building was something deeply Italian: a culture where heritage, territory and human relationships formed a foundation of excellence. This is what we call 'Made in Santoni', and by that, we are referring to an identity; a language of craftsmanship, discipline and of absolute attention to detail.

For our family, it was never only about making shoes, it was about creating beauty - together; where every movement carries generations of knowledge, carefully preserved and passed on, we call this Meraviglia.

DMA: Your father's great intuition was industrializing the artisanal process while keeping its soul intact. How do you still draw that fine balance?

GS: Tradition, for us, is not something to be preserved in stillness but in fact it is something to be lived, interpreted and gently transformed over time, without ever betraying our DNA. Our roots are where everything begins. Innovation matters only when it supports that, helping craftsmanship be clearer, not necessarily louder.

At Santoni, the hand remains central. While technology refines, supports and elevates everything we do, it will never replace the intuition of the artisan. It is a delicate equilibrium, almost instinctive, a continuous dialogue between past and present.

 

DMA: 'Quality' as you've said, is your obsession; what is your benchmark of quality you hold for Santoni?

GS: Every Santoni object must carry an identity; it must hold within it the memory of the hands that shaped it, the culture it comes from and the strength of our territory - Marche, and Corridonia. Quality for us, is a value system and it means never compromising. True quality reveals itself in time, in the way an object lives, and eventually becomes part of someone's everyday life, almost effortlessly.

DMA: Velatura, your hand-colouring technique, builds depth layer by layer through patient, controlled strokes, and customers must wait 16 to 20 weeks for a bespoke pair. Does the luxury consumer of today ever request a quicker turnaround, and how do you respond?

GS: Velatura is so much more than a technique for us, it is the very act of creation. It is a sacred ritual where the artisan becomes an artist, and each gesture leaves a trace on a pair of shoes, layer after layer, colour becomes depth, and then emotion. You cannot accelerate something that is meant to have a soul. And those who truly understand craftsmanship know that waiting is part of the experience, it is part of the desire, part of the meaning.

DMA: Santoni built its reputation as the connoisseur's choice for men, and today your women's collections are commanding equal attention. What did you have to learn, and/or unlearn, while designing for women?

GS: Designing for women required a different kind of listening, which is more intuitive, and emotional. If our heritage is rooted in structure, the feminine universe invited us to explore lightness and nuance. It asked us to soften, to reinterpret and to let go of rigidity without losing identity. It is the same language of craftsmanship, authenticity and beauty, but spoken with different nuances.

 

DMA: Who is the Santoni Woman, according to you?

GS: At Santoni we always start with a deep love for beauty and quality. These are the values that define the brand, and they naturally evolve into a feminine perspective that is not driven by trends, but by a personal, instinctive sense of elegance. In this process, masculine codes are reimagined. Lines soften, volumes become lighter, structure opens to movement. The Santoni woman is independent and cultured, guided by an authentic sensibility. She is drawn to craftsmanship but seeks freedom within it. She chooses pieces that feel personal, objects with meaning, which are able to evolve with her.

DMA: How did the idea of 'One of One' come about, and what has the response been so far?

GS: Craftsmanship, for us, has always been a dialogue. And One of One is the natural evolution of our philosophy. Santoni has always been rooted in a strong artisanal tradition, where the imprint of the hand and the discipline of time find their highest expression through bespoke and Made-to-Order services. With One of One, this heritage evolves into something even more meaningful: it becomes true co-creation. The client becomes an author alongside us, shaping something deeply personal and unique.

The response has been deeply emotional. Because when something is co-created, it transcends function and becomes a memory, an identity. Craftsmanship reveals its deepest purpose, not only to create beauty, but to create connection.

At its core, One of One is a reaffirmation of individuality. In a world that moves at extraordinary speed and is increasingly shaped by standardisation, we felt the need to bring dialogue, time and the human touch back to the centre of the experience.

DMA: There is something almost old-world in Santoni's approach to longevity. What does it mean for your customer?

GS: Longevity is a conscious choice, a responsibility. Santoni's creations are meant to live, and to accompany clients in their everyday life. They are not made to be hastily consumed, but to be savoured and experienced, and in today's busy life, choosing what lasts is truly a modern gesture. It reflects a deeper understanding of quality and authenticity.

 

DMA: From your travels to the Middle East, how do you perceive the GCC client, and what has been the most motivating part of this journey?

GS: The Middle East represents a strategic market for us, one that we continue to believe in with conviction, even within the complexities of the current geopolitical landscape.

From my travels across the GCC, I perceive a client with a highly refined sensitivity to authenticity and excellence, paired with a strong sense of individuality. What resonates most with Santoni is our human approach, our idea of beauty as something deeply personal, rooted in culture and identity.

In many ways, we share the same values: a profound respect for tradition, and the desire to reinterpret it with a contemporary perspective.

DMA: Beyond business, what is Giuseppe Santoni driven by?

GS: I am driven, above all, by curiosity, by the desire to explore and to remain in dialogue with different cultures. Inspiration reveals itself across many dimensions: art, architecture, design, and the deep, living heritage of our territory. These references shape a vision that goes beyond business. Beauty, to me, is a matter of balance and intention, where proportion, material and craftsmanship come together with precision. And rarity, on the other hand, is about authenticity. It is something that carries a human presence, in the form of a story, a point of view, and above all, a soul.

And at the core of it, this is what we strive for at Santoni: to create objects that are not only beautiful, but full of meaning, and capable of enduring beyond time.

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