As the Internet’s infatuation with “quiet luxury” reached a not-so-quiet crescendo last year, more than a few long-time Loro Piana devotees raised an eyebrow. The Italian house—best known for its cashmere and wool raiment—has luxuriated in its “if you know, you know” status for decades, even using the catchphrase as a campaign slogan last year.
That spirit—aloof, but never smug—has proven a lasting formula for Loro Piana, which celebrates its centennial this year. A new book from Assouline, Loro Piana: Master of Fibres, charts the rich history behind the heritage label's understated aesthetic, which today finds itself more widely coveted than ever.
The recent vigor around the maison is far from a marketing dividend, however. It’s the happy byproduct of an emphasis on the brand’s core facets: the rigor of its craft and the (literally) unparalleled quality of its materials.
A bit of family history, first. In 1924, Pietro Loro Piana opened a wool mill in the Piedmont’s Valsesia valley, building on his family’s established reputation in the textile trade. By the 1940s, the business thrived in suiting fabrics when Franco Loro Piana stepped on board. Pietro’s nephew heightened the label’s reputation by sourcing exotic fibers—alpaca, cashmere, and vicuña—coveted by prestigious Parisian ateliers.
The next generation, brothers Sergio and Pier Luigi, took the brand global in the 1980s. Sergio led sales and marketing while Pier Luigi focused on the material end of things, introducing finished pieces for the first time—starting with the iconic Grande Unita scarf and eventually broaching outerwear by outfitting the Italian equestrian team at the 1992 Olympics. Today’s Loro Piana customer might look to the brand when assembling a wardrobe that’s meant to last. The maison—which maintains third-generation family involvement in addition to its LVMH ownership—instills in its clientele the understanding that its pieces are nascent heirlooms to be passed down again and again.
That doesn’t mean the brand—or its devotees—haven’t evolved. Over the years, exacting style standards have been matched by an upsurge in environmental awareness. Loro Piana’s sustainability efforts have been reinforced by its long-standing relationships with farm partners and investments to protect rare sheep breeds.
There’s also a fixation on innovation—the annual Loro Piana Record Bale award is bestowed on the farm partner in Australia and New Zealand who manages to produce the finest merino wool fibers, to consistently astounding results. The 2023 winner presented a record-breaking fiber of only 10.2 microns (for comparison, a human hair measures 80 microns), an improvement of more than 30 percent over the competition’s early winner in the ’90s.
This rich history and unrelenting dedication is at the core of Master of Fibres. Across nearly 200 pages filled with lush archival imagery and family lore, the tome unspools the lives and prescient instincts of six generations of Loro Pianas. But how to sum up a century of style? One detail says it all: The book’s covering is made from Tela Sergio, a signature cotton and linen blend, and a beloved textile of the brother it is named after.
Sergio’s sartorial proclivities were the inspiration for the house’s anniversary collection, which paid homage to his taste in tailoring and his preferred color of luscious kummel. Of course, the rich backstory of the book’s cover may not register to everyone. If you know, you know.
