Andrea Biani shoe brand founder Sebastiano Perillo dies
Andrea Biani shoe brand founder Sebastiano Perillo dies
Category: Article
| Title | Andrea Biani shoe brand founder Sebastiano Perillo dies |
|---|---|
| Author | Brittany Keogh |
| Year | 2019 |
| Publication | Stuff Life & Lifestyle |
| Publisher | Stuff NZ |
| Language | English |
| Geographic reference | Fiume, Rijeka, Auckland, |
| Time reference | 1950s to present |
| Online resource | YES |
| Topic | Italian businessmen, Istria refugees, Fiume refugees, Italian shoemakers, Perillo family, |
Sebastiano Perillo (1935-2019) was a former refugee who founded one of New Zealand's most famous shoe brands, Andrea Biani. This article was written after his death, with quotations from Sebastiano's son David Perillo. The Perillo family had fled their hometown of Fiume, now Rijeka after World War II. They stayed in multiple refugee camps before being granted refugee status by the New Zealand government. In 1951, Perillo arrived in the country – along with his parents, three brothers and four sisters – "with absolutely nothing", his son David Perillo said. Perillo worked odd jobs before starting a shoe-making business with his siblings, and created his first pair of shoes in a shed out the back of his family's home in New Lynn, Auckland, in the 1960s.
In Sebastiano Perillo's death notice, published in the New Zealand Herald, the family wrote "Iano (John) was always grateful and thankful to New Zealand for the compassionate rescue of the Perillo family (one sister killed on the last day of the war) to become happy and productive Kiwis."
