Vicuna, baby cashmere, and Tasmanian Super 150s.

Loro Piana was founded in 1924 by Pietro Loro Piana, an Italian engineer, in the Sesia valley commune of Quarona, Piedmont. The family textile trade originated in Trivero in the early 19th century, with the family relocating activity to Valsesia (the Sesia valley) in the second half of the 19th century and founding wool spinning mills there. The 1924 Loro Piana mill modernizes that older Piedmont wool tradition. Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana took over from their father Franco in 1975 and ran the business through the four decades that established Loro Piana as the luxury cloth reference for the bespoke trade.

LVMH acquired 80 percent of the mill in 2013 and increased the stake to 94 percent in 2024 through a billion euro investment. The brand operates under LVMH leadership today. The Quarona mill complex continues to handle the full production cycle, from raw fiber selection to weaving and finishing, on the same site the family has operated for a century.

The mill is unusual for holding direct ownership of its fiber supply. Loro Piana acquired a stake in an Argentinian vicuna reserve in 2013 in addition to the historic Peruvian reserve, and those reserves remain the operational source of the rarest commercial fiber in circulation. The company is also among the largest commercial cashmere buyers in the world, sourcing baby cashmere from China and Mongolia under direct contract. The fiber sourcing model differentiates Loro Piana from merchant houses whose cloth quality depends on third party mills.

The Loro Piana suiting library sits at the top of the worsted fineness range. Tasmanian in book 691, moving to book 713, runs at Super 150s at roughly 16 micron average fineness on extra long fiber Australian merino. Franco Loro Piana sourced the extra long fiber merino in Australia; Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana developed the lighter 2x1 Tasmanian weave through their research leadership beginning in the 1970s. The cloth runs at roughly 250 grams per meter, light enough to wear across two climates on a travel rotation and dense enough to hold shape through structured tailoring.

Wish Super 170s sits a step finer at roughly 15 micron, with a softer hand than Tasmanian and a drape that reads silkier through the press. Four Seasons Super 130s carries slightly more weight, which makes it the cooler season pick across the foundational Loro Piana register. Zelander, on the heavier 10.5 ounce per yard end, sits closer to a structured jacket weight. Pecora Nera, the undyed black sheep bunch, runs at autumn weight and carries a character that pairs with country and country club register more than business.

Beyond the worsted library the mill commissions the rarest fiber categories in the suiting world. Vicuna at roughly 12 micron is the rarest natural fiber commercially woven and sits at the very top of the fineness scale. Baby cashmere at roughly 13.5 micron, combed from kid goats, sits a step finer than standard cashmere. Limited bunches with lotus flower fiber and Royal Lightness collections push the technical envelope further each season. The mill maintains direct relationships with the bespoke trade and reserves the rarest cuts for committed orders.

Loro Piana cloth carries a softness and finish that suits the dressier register: the wedding suit that sits in the closet for thirty years, the executive evening rotation, the second or third commission for a client whose wardrobe has moved past entry tier. Tasmanian and Wish run as the foundational year round business choices for the senior executive book. Four Seasons works through the cooler shoulder months. Vicuna and baby cashmere belong to the formal evening register and the rarest occasion register rather than daily wear.

The cloth holds up across the harvest wedding circuit through September and October, where the Tasmanian and Wish bunches sit cleanly through both the afternoon ceremony and the evening reception. The same bunches carry the executive board commission and the corporate events register. For the country club and casual blazer rotation, the Loro Piana hopsack and linen blend bunches sit slightly outside the worsted core but inside the same fineness register.

Loro Piana sits at the upper end of the mill library on the per meter scale, above Holland and Sherry Crispaire and Vitale Barberis Canonico Revenge on standard worsted construction. The Tasmanian and Wish bunches are the foundational commissions; vicuna and baby cashmere commissions sit in a separate tier entirely, with the cloth alone reaching the low five figures before construction.

Loro Piana commissions concentrate among senior executives commissioning the second or third custom suit, principal level grooms commissioning a wedding suit that will sit in the closet for decades, ministry leaders building a Sunday register, and second residence clients whose wardrobes follow a multi city calendar. The common thread is wardrobe maturity. A client who already knows what a Super 130s worsted feels like under structured construction is the audience; a first commission client is more often a Vitale Barberis Canonico or Holland and Sherry audience.

Loro Piana also carries weight in the international executive book. Clients with Manhattan, London, or Hong Kong professional networks recognize the mill on sight, and the cloth reads correctly in the rooms those careers keep. The wedding circuit through the Napa and Sonoma harvest season concentrates the Loro Piana commission window in California; the bespoke wedding suits in Loro Piana cloth sit at the dressier register of the harvest circuit. Multi piece executive commissions roll into executive wardrobe planning naturally, with Tasmanian and Wish carrying the business rotation. The construction detail at the upper tier sits on the bespoke tier rather than made to measure.