Weaving in Chieri has a century long glorious history, which began in the Middle Ages, consolidated in the ensuing centuries, with the Statutes of the Universitą del Fustagno (University of Fustian) at the end of the XV cent., and then always present in the history of the city, constantly affecting its economic and social features and its urban layout. Some researchers believe that the beginning of this production coincides with the settlement of weavers (about 1144 A.D.) coming from the Balcans and practising the "Cathar" heresy.
The proto-industrial period can be located between the late XV and the late XVI cent., when more than half of the city population were engaged in "... beating, bleaching, drying, dyeing, finishing, weaving . . .". Around these main activities others had developed, strictly associated with farming: the growing of "gualdo"(a plant used in blue dyeing), silkworm breeding and the cultivation of the mulberry tree (probably introduced in Chieri by the noblewoman Sibilla, wife of Amedeo V, count of Savoy) and consequently the drawing and twisting of silk thread. All these processes were required to convert raw materials into fabric: silk, linen, hemp and later cotton, both raw and in skeins, coming from the East via Marseille or Genoa. The typical dimension of the business was that of the small family shop, that contracted out the weaving to home weavers.
The Chieri manufacturer-merchants undertook to supply the large consumption goods, by containing the production costs., considering that fustian was a medium/low quality fabric, of a bluish colour, dyed with gualdo ("isatis tinctoria") exported through the port of Genoa all over the world. A corruption of the word "Genoa" might explain the term "blue-jeans", the famous fabric become popular in recent times, with similar characteristics to the ancient Chieri's fustian. The production of fustian, flourishing in the XV and XVI cent., ran into a crisis starting from the second half of the XVII. Later, with the introduction of semi-mechanised processes, Chieri had a productive recovery, with the weaving mill set up by David Levi in 1809 in the building of the former Santa Chiara convent, and subsequently with the introduction of the Jacquard loom (about 1830). In the following decades, and until the maximum expansion in 1910, the Chieri textile industry went on increasing the production and the people employed. Spinning mills and dyeworks multiplied, though still linked to a network of home weaving, when no one would walk in any street of the town without hearing the typical beat of the looms. In 1832 38 weaving mills were registered, with 470 hand-operated machines; in 1892 the factories were only 17, but their average equipment had been increased to 50 looms each, still prevalently hand-operated, and the production was also increased.