After 55 Years, Il Bisonte Still Leads The Way in Sustainable Leather Goods

Next year marks the 55th anniversary of Il Bisonte, the Italian leather goods brand known for its slow fashion and sustainability — practices that are top of mind in the industry now. But the ethos is actually baked in the DNA of the Tuscan heritage brand, which free-spirited leather artisan Wanny Di Filippo founded in 1970.

Over Zoom from Florence, Di Filippo explains that the genesis of Il Bisonte began in the mid-’60s when he was working as a vendor in the idyllic, Mediterranean island of Sardinia. “Sardinia was a very wild place. A lot of hippies were living there,” explains Di Filippo, an engaging storyteller, via a translator. “So I took inspiration from the environment to start producing objects in leather.”

Di Filippo returned to Santa Croce sull'Arno, the center of leather production in Tuscany, to make small goods from vachetta — full-grain, vegetable-tanned leather made from cow hides. “I asked a little factory to produce [small leather goods] with the leftovers of their leather production,” says Di Filippo, explaining that the vachetta, from adult cattle reared for food, were typically repurposed as compost and natural fertilizer to enrich the soil. “The small leather goods slowly, in time, became iconic for the brand.”

Vachetta remains the signature foundation for Il Bisonte bags and small leather goods, as the natural texture essentially develops its own charming personality with each wear. “I love vachetta,” says Di Filippo, who, himself, sports a distinctively playful and street style-worthy style that's a mix of vibrant colors and patterns, tactile fabrics and jaunty hats. “It becomes more beautiful [as you use it] because vachetta changes each time you touch it. It creates a patina. Yes, [the by-product leather] is sustainable, but I just love it.”

Along with trailblazing in zero-waste production, Di Filippo also founded Il Bisonte on the principles of slow fashion: locally, ethically and transparently-produced pieces in classic silhouettes that transcend trends and with functionality that never goes out of style.

“My idea of producing beautiful leather goods was to make very simple objects that have a use and a reason why I was producing and creating it,” says Di Filippo. “So I didn't want to do strange things or follow new leather trends, like chrome, which is very bad for the environment.”

Even today, the most sought-after Il Bisonte silhouettes remain timeless, versatile and functional: the Consuelo, a saddle bag and the ultra-light Snodo tote, both with adjustable straps, the under-the-arm moon-shaped Belcanto with zippered closure and interior pocket, and the roomy Le Laudi bucket bag, with double-straps. “Customers are buying something beautiful that they can actually use,” says Di Filippo.

In 2019, he retired and sold the brand to its Japan-based distributor Look Holdings, which steadfastly maintains commitment to Di Filippo’s founding principles. Each step of Il Bisonte’s supply chain, down to the brass zippers, are still sourced locally in Tuscany within an approximate 19-mile radius from its Florence headquarters — also reducing its carbon footprint.

The label just presented its Spring 2025 collection during Milan Fashion Week, featuring new iterations of its time-honored silhouettes — buckets, totes and crossbodies — in vegetable-tanned leather. The new lines also pay homage to Il Bisonte’s eco-conscious roots, with a photo campaign shot in the 16th century walled gates of the picturesque Tuscan city of Lucca. “I was the pioneer of this [sustainability] movement,” says Di Filippo.

One could also say he’s an innovator in celebrity and influencer marketing, too. In 1970, Di Filippo opened the Il Bisonte head offices and showroom in the majestic Palazzo Corsini, which dates back to the 17th century (and still remains in the family of Florentine nobility.)

“I rented the store from a marchesa, so the nobles from Florence were seeing my pieces, and they started to buy belts, leather goods,” says Di Filippo. “This was the very beginning and then word spread and I started to sell more.”

Soon, the fashion and Hollywood A-listers were shopping there, too. “Ralph Lauren would come every year before the holidays to buy gifts for all his friends, and then Liz Taylor came in one day and bought a bag,” says Di Filippo, also remembering comedian and Rat Pack member, Jerry Lewis. “He called the store and said, ‘I'm coming from Rome. I want to buy a diary with a leather cover.’”

More recently, The Bear star Jeremy Allen White proclaimed his affinity for the label’s elegant and durable leather-bound script binder. “Il Bisonte, they're really, really beautiful. They work in leather. They also make bags and stuff,” he said, explaining that he’s been hooked ever since receiving one from producer Gary Goldman on his 21st birthday. “I always have one of these on set with me.”

Dakota Fanning has also kept her scripts in the same monogrammed Il Bisonte binder given to her by co-star Alec Baldwin when she was 8 years old. In 2019, Fanning posted her lovingly timeworn caramel vachetta binder on Instagram with the caption, “Everything I’ve worked on since has lived in here.”

Di Filippo explains that Hollywood’s embrace of Il Bisonte’s script binders dates back to a request from Gladiator and Napoleon director Ridley Scott in the late-‘80s. “He asked me to produce [binders] for the actors, actresses and crew working [on his films],” says Di Filippo. To this day, Scott still presents his teams with sumptuous leather-bound copies of his famous hand drawn storyboards — a.k.a. “Ridleygrams” — after wrapping a movie.

According to the brand, additional celebrities seen with Il Bisonte, on-screen or on-the-street, include The White Lotus breakout Beatrice Granno, Sarah Jessica Parker, Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz.

Di Filippo credits “word of mouth” for the enduring popularity of the binders, and classic men’s and women’s leather goods with Hollywood A-listers. “Very organic,” he says, while also unintentionally dropping a very appropriate pun.

As Il Bisonte heads into another milestone anniversary next year, Di Filippo should feel proud that his timeless Florentine design sensibility and commitment to sustainability lives on. He fondly recalls traveling to Japan for each of the store openings since the first in Kyoto in 1999. (Fifty one out of 57 Il Bisonte international locations are in Japan.) As Look Holdings plans the festive celebration, Di Filippo is awaiting his invitation.

“They are going to celebrate the brand and think initiatives,” he says. “I’d be happy to join the celebration. I feel like they still need me.”