Shade — Italy
FIM
Umbrellas and large-format shade structures, produced in Italy and printed across six frame families — from side-post retractables to modular, joinable arrays.
The house
What FIM’s own catalogue says about itself, and nothing it does not.
FIM builds its umbrella line — its own description is linea di ombrelloni— on a claim of full domestic production: the catalogue states production is based 100% in Italy, under its own “Made in Italy” mark, distributed through a network the book describes as covering forty countries.
Structures are built from premium hardwood, aluminium and stainless steel; canopies use technologically advanced acrylic fabrics, waterproofed or water-repellent, printed across a colour range the catalogue puts at over thirty shades — expanded to the 61 codes on record in the fabric programme below. The house describes its own design register as modern and linear: essential, clean elegance, built for durability with long-term availability of replacement parts.
The house itself counts more than seventy-five years of umbrella-making, begun outside Novara in Piedmont — its own site claims the figure, and no founding year is printed anywhere in its material, so none is claimed here.
The range
125 pieces, read into one collection.
FIM’s book organises its umbrella range into six printed families: Flexy, its large-format joinable shade structures; Retrattili and Pensili, side-post and cantilevered retractable umbrellas; Alluminio and Legno, aluminium- and timber-framed umbrellas; and Componibili, modular umbrellas designed to be joined into arrays.
Fabric & base
Two things FIM prints in detail: its colour programme, and how its umbrellas stand up.
Colori
FIM prints one shared fabric and colour programme across the umbrella range, run to five named families: Acrylic Ecrù, pitched as the best-value option in a single colour; solution-dyed acrylic, coloured through the yarn for maximum fastness, in forty-two colours; Micro-Mesh, a perforated cloth for windy sites, in seven; Airfim, a fully waterproof cloth for professional and contract use, in six; and Olefim, fully recyclable, in five. Sixty-one named colour codes in total, each printed with its own name and supplier reference.
Bases
FIM’s own base group is the least uniform part of the book: some rows carry a printed weight — a 64 × 64 cm granite base at 75 kg, a 59 × 59 cm concrete base at 60 kg, a round concrete base at 40 kg — and others print none at all, only a requirement for concrete pavers supplied separately (Montecarlo’s own base calls for 50 × 50 cm pavers) or a plain description of galvanised steel ballasted with concrete, as built for the Flexy Twin, Large and Zen structures. Where FIM’s book gives a number, it is above; where it does not, this page has not supplied one either.
Custom
FIM’s own book prints no bespoke programme. Casualife’s does.
Casualife customises umbrellas — fabrics, frame colours and branding to a project’s brief.
Provenance
Where this index comes from, and how sure it is.
This index is read from FIM’s own catalogue. Most rows in it carry the book’s own printed specifications; a minority were indexed from its photography and are marked to a lower evidence tier. Piece and collection counts above are computed from the live catalogue at build time, not typed in by hand.
From the house’s own archive
In situ
