Born in Biella on September 25th, 1930, from a family of textile industrialists, inherits the activity at his father’s death at the age of twenty. He stops his studies in Philosophy and Journalism to rediscover himself immediately suited to the style and fashion business at the highest level. Following the family tradition, investing heavily over the years in the research and development of materials, adding with taste and sensibility and highly personal insights attention to design. In short, to be exact since 1957, he achieved worldwide attention with the presentation of its first apparel line, Hitman, in Milan. In 1962 he founded with Osvaldo Testa the brand “Flying Cross”, the first “Designer Line” which adds to the Hitman line. In 1967 he opened the first boutique of Cerruti 1881 at Place de la Madeleine in Paris. In the mid-sixties in his Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti collaborates new emerging names in Italian fashion, taking as a “rookie” designers of the caliber of Giorgio Armani.

In the seventies he created the first deconstructed jacket. He establishes licensing agreements in Japan and the US in order to increase internationally the visibility of the brand and to maintain competitive prices in most markets, proving to possess more and more, as well as artistic skills, a strong entrepreneurial vocation to the global market. In these years has also born the fashion line for woman that twenty years later will represent 20% of total company revenues. In 1975 the Hitman begins production and distribution of knitwear, shirts and casual line: Cerruti 1881 Brothers.