Nick Design – Our History

AT THE BEGINNING

The path that led us in 2020 to create Designs For Textiles (Copyright Nick Designs – Nicastro), was born as a sign of the future in the early 50s, when a very young Franco Nicastro, after graduating as a textile expert technician studying at I.T.I.S. in Como, and after a period as a military officer, at the beginning of the 50s he became part of an important Italian textile company in the province of Como, the Bottinelli textile factory.

From the very beginning Franco shows great commitment and dedication to work, which he considers very important, even for the day when he will have his family. With perseverance, inventiveness, honesty and discipline, the latter acquired also thanks to the experience gained during the short period as an Italian military officer, he is already beginning to have his first working successes.

But what immediately began to make a particular difference, were his outstanding technical skills, born thanks to his considerable commitment and interest in the study and research for the creation of ever better fabrics, both from a stylistic and engineering point of view. Thanks to this peculiar characteristic, in a short time he became one of the most sought-after textile technicians in Como, already at a young age.

In 1955 Franco married Laura, whom he had met on the job. Happy of this new and important step, with the desire to give the best possible life to Laura and possible future children, he continues in his constant commitment, trying to grow in his career, which in fact always improves, becoming very soon and still very young, director of the textile company where he worked.

Thanks to his great commitment, Franco is increasingly in demand, and receives more and more important work proposals, which in some cases he refuses, with the knowledge that otherwise he could not have been closer to Laura. During the early 60s, however, a new opportunity leads him to become director of the famous and important weaving factory Prini.

His career path is always growing with remarkable results. Thanks to his creations and his commitment, in those years he realized important developments that led Prini weaving to become even more important in the world of Italian textiles.

In the 70s, by now in the middle of his career, Franco decides to accept the offer of the well-known silk company Noseda, and immediately becomes its general technical director, with discretionary powers and autonomy, a qualification achieved thanks to his now great know-how.
By now Franco’s family has expanded with his 3 children, the eldest son Michele, Antonella and finally Stefano, a family he cares for very much and even with his great commitment to work, he is always able to follow in everything.

During the 80’s, already director of the weaving factory of the Noseda group, brought the latter to a period of great growth, innovating its production of Jacquard fabrics, thanks to the realization of more and more precious fabrics.
His experimentations did not stop at technique and design, but also at the research and use of new types of yarns beyond silk, and also at particular finishing applied after weaving, which make the fabrics made by Noseda, more and more beautiful and in demand.
Thanks to his special working method, a meeting between technique, style and research, Franco brings the already important Noseda, to grow even more, and to become one of the most known and appreciated weavings of that period.

At the beginning of the 90s, Franco’s youngest son, Stefano also graduated as a textile technical expert, following in this way his father’s footsteps, and as soon as he graduated, thanks also to his passion for computer science and computers, he started a one-year period as an “apprentice” in a software company dedicated to the creation of CAD for fabrics. After only a few months, his task becomes that of instructor for companies for the use of textile CAD systems. In the same year, he was given a funny anecdote: he became for a few weeks the teacher of his former professors at the I.T.I.S. of Setificio in Como, for the use of CAD systems!

While Franco, by now with incredible experience, continues to run the Noseda weaving mill, always continuing to experiment with new fabrics, during the 90s, Stefano begins his career in other textile fields, more focused on the use of computers for the management, analysis, and operation of textile production, and so he specializes in industrial production planning, especially in the field of furnishing textiles, both healds and Jacquard.
Up to this point, father and son work separately, but soon something will change.

At the end of the 90’s, Stefano, after about eight years of work experience, decides to give a turning point to his career and leaves the company where he was working to start a working project together with his father Franco.

Together they create Nick Designs and combine Franco’s great experience with more than 40 years of work, with the technological innovation brought by Stefano, helping textile companies to develop further thanks to their combined experience.
The result is a perfect combination of experience, technology and creativity between father and son.

Creativity that Stefano discovers he can use and explore even more, thanks to the advice that his father reveals to him and that Stefano uses in a more and more performing way, also thanks to his experience and aptitude with computer graphics and CAD systems.

At the end of the first decade of 2000, Franco decided to progressively retire from the business and “hand over the reins” to Stefano, who has now acquired all the experience and techniques of the family.

Stefano, in 2020 creates the evolved project “Designs for Textiles”, with the precise aim of being able to help every company, creative, professional, in the textile field and in the designs, offering online in a simple, ready and fast jacquard designs, repeatable patterns and ultra-realistic textures.