The factory and the village of Crespi d’Adda were founded in 1878 by the commendator Cristoforo Benigno Crespi, a “tengitt” (dyers) family of Busto Arsizio (Varese).
Cristoforo Crespi, owner of three companies (Vaprio d’Adda, 1864 - Vigevano, 1867 - Ghemme, 1870), wanted to create a new factory on the left bank of the river Adda, in order to use water as power.

In 1877, after having purchased 85 hectares of ground in the territory of Canonica d’Adda and Capriate d’Adda, he got the permission to build a channel that carried part of the waters of the river inside the power station (at the beginning it was an hydromechanic power station, later an hydroelectric power station).
The company, provided with the first 10,000 spinning machines, began to work on July 25th 1878.

The workers’ houses (called “palasöcc”) were inaugurated later. Crespi decided to build them in order to accommodate the workers coming from others factories.

The company went on improving during years, especially thanks to the management of the senator Silvio Crespi, the company promoter’s son.

In early 1900, the factory was provided with 3,000 spinning-machines, 300 weaving-looms and a dyeworks department for the processing of the fabrics (which were highly demanded and appreciated on both the national and international market).

The village around the factory was further developed: they began to build semi-detached houses surrounded from a lawn and a kitchen garden.
Silvio Crespi chose this new house typology following his working experience in France, Germany and especially in England, where he saw the workers’ uneasiness in crowded blocks of flats (such as for example trouble, scarce hygiene, illnesses and bad neighborhood relationships).
He thought the most important provident entrepreneur’s duty was to improve workers’ life and work conditions. So the workers could go to the factory without problems, take care of their job, work more and also avoid industrial accidents, which were often caused by tiredness or carelessness.
Silvio Crespi tried to avoid workers’ uneasiness but he was also interested in making profits. He knew that, if the workers had worked in favourable conditions and serenity, the manufacturing would have been improved and more profitable, the absenteeism would been avoided and there would not have been unease inside the factory.

So Silvio decided to provide the village with all the necessary services: a school building, a church, a sport centre, a washhouse, a small clinic, an home economics course, a band, a firehouse, a grocery and clothing shop, an after-work club, baths and public showers.

The settlement and the company of Crespi d’Adda, inaugurated on July 25th 1878, were owned by Crespi till Thirties. The factory worked until that date, thanks to 3.200 employees and producing thread and cotton fabrics for sheets, shirts, satin, poplin, etc….appreciated fabrics both in Italy and abroad.

After the First World War and the Fascism in Italy, the company suffered from the crisis that struck and paralysed most of the Italian industries and in 1931 it was highly leveraged with the Banca Commerciale Italiana. To face the crisis, a great society, called Stabilimenti Tessili Italiani (STI) was created thanks to the merging of three companies: the firm of Crespi d’Adda, the Manifatture Toscane Riunite and the Cotonificio Veneziano. The village and the factory became ownership of the new society and the Crespi family, that initially had covered a role in the STI, quickly left it and also the village they had built.

In 1936 the Banca Comerciale Italiana property was bought out by the IRI and the three STI companies were put on sale: the factry in Crespi d’Adda was named "STI Benigno Crespi", soon shortened in "STI."

In 1970 the STI was joined to the Manufattura Rossari & Varzi and the factory also assumed its denomination. Two years later, the Rossari & Varzi, which had been cut in a complex financial deal by Michael Sindona, suffered from a crisis and stopped working. Later it was put on sale.

After several workers and labor unions’ intervention on behalf of the firm, it was purchased by two societies: the Addafilo and the Inditex, composed by Gepi and other private societies.
The Inditex (which owned the weaving department, the dyeworks department and a new spinning department) was based on the Gepi-Legler sharing and employed 700 workers.
The Addafilo (which owned the old spinning department and thermoelectric power station) was headed by a group of six societies (Gepi, Legler, Zucchi, Bassetti, Eliolana and Lane Rossi) and employed around 200 workers.

During years, the Legler purchased the quotas of the other societies and in 1976 it remained the only owner of the factory of Crespi d’Adda. Although the personnel was reduced, the firm succeeded in a satisfactory reabsorption of the employees.
The factory has been going on its activity today, thanks to the renovation of the machineries and the creation of a new typology of manufacturing of Denim fabric.

The events in the history of the factory affected the history of the town.
During the STI management, in the Thirties, the life inside the village changed: the president of the new society, called Bruno Canto (convinced fascist), created a strict organization in all the sectors, trying to get the inhabitants to forget what the Crespi family had done for fifty years.
The conversion of the workers’ houses is emblematic: a new style was inagurated, a "fascist style", which wanted everything linear and perfect (in those days, they built the baths, demolished the latrines, removed the red-brick-decorations and painted the houses in red or green).
They also tried to name the settlement "Tessilia" (name really fascist, such as Littoria, Aprilia, Sabaudia, Pontinia, etc.) and they created an informative-cultural magazine with the same name, in order to , in order to exalt the fascist activity.
The STI paternalistic dictatorship caused a sort of "fear" among the workers and nobody dared to give his own opinion on the management, because everyone feared the lay-off. In that period all that social services lost their importance. The factory had only 1600 employees: about half in comparison to the years among 1928 and 1930.

In 1972 both the Rossari & Varzi and the village were put on sale. The inhabitants of Crespi created a cooperative hoping to be able to take over all the houses, also avoiding a speculative sale. The inhabitants’ project failed, but most of the workers succeeded in purchasing their own houses (valued around 12.000.000 liras), thanks to private negotiation. The managers’ houses and the owner’s Villa were sold to people not living in the village. Several buildings designed for public services (schools building, sport centre, postal office, etc.) were purchased by the village and by the parish of Crespi. The workers’ houses, were initially purchased by the village, which gave to the tenants the opportunity to buy their own flat in the following years.
The church of the village was given to the parish of Crespi in 1984. Mr. Bagnarelli (liquidator of the Rossari & Varzi), who named the square near the church after his mother Cleopatra Bagnarelli.

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