In the business of fashion, all waste is not created equal. There is a world of difference between the fine 15-micron cashmere yarns that might be counted as excess in Loro Piana’s knitting unit and the dead-stock material found in any old sweater factory. Both deserve to be put to good reuse, but in the hands of Loro Piana, the style world’s beacon of quiet luxury, the results are discreetly exceptional.
A few years back, the brand was faced with a build-up of surplus accumulated over the past few years and, given that reducing resource waste is now a sine qua non of the luxury industry, committed to reusing the excess stock. The team, led by product development & collections merchandise director Alessandra Varianini, came up with a solution in the shape of a capsule collection of re-cashmere knitwear and accessories, entitled Loro.
“We wanted to recreate and achieve the same hand feel and touch as per all our precious yarns by using only Loro Piana carefully selected surplus from our production chain and Loro Piana virgin cashmere fibres. The knitwear overflow reutilised is taken from about two years ago,” says Varianini. The process started with removing all the buttons, stitching and zippers from the surplus items, dividing up the colour categories and breaking down the items into pure carded cashmere.
This process of unravelling the precious yarn is lengthy and intricate but delivered a yarn that could then be re-spun with virgin undyed cashmere to create an appealing handle and melange hues in shades of heather, nut and grey. Stripped of fastenings, the Loro styles, including four knits, one beanie hat, a scarf and a sneaker, are essentialist in design. “We liked the idea of having the yarn and the cashmere speak for itself and we focused on the hand feel and hues. Adding hardware and fastening would have been a harsh result, taking away from the yarn,” explains Varianini of the redux.
“We focused on the hand feel and hues. Adding hardware would have taken away from the yarn”
Alessandra Varianini
The paralysis of choice that afflicts us all was also lessened with the initial simple line-up of a polo shirt, turtleneck, round neck and V-neck, which has since been added to with a couple of further designs. The shoe, meanwhile, was a calibration of the brand’s famously lightweight 360 Flexy Walk sneaker (the original was introduced in 2018, with the knitted upper made in Wish wool yarn), this time fashioned in re-cashmere with a high-tech sole – probably the hushiest of stealth footwear.
Loro Piana’s very fine cashmere, which is gathered from the underfleece of the goats that roam the arid mountains of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, is one of the reasons why LVMH bought an 80% stake in the brand, based in Quarona, Italy, for $2.6 billion in 2013. The company, formerly a sixth-generation family-run affair, is now sailing smoothly under the stewardship of Antoine Arnault, who is chairman, a role he undertakes alongside working as CEO of Berluti. What LVMH invested in was a specialist manufacturer of noble yarns and materials that had a stellar reputation in the luxury business, especially among tailoring and knitwear designers. With material scarcity a reality, Loro Piana offered a very well-run vertical production business with environmental and sustainable credentials (everything is traceable) and an innovative ethos.
Bernard and Antoine Arnault were already long-time fans. Acquiring a few polo shirts and knits on summer trips to Portofino was an annual father/son ritual. When Pier Luigi Piana (grand-nephew of the founder, Pietro Loro Piana) inked the deal, there was one caveat: he insisted that LVMH would not employ or promote a star designer. For a luxury conglomerate that has reshaped fashion with its platforming of hero creatives (Pharrell Williams at LV menswear, and Maria Grazia Chiuri and Kim Jones at Dior), this might have been a hard fact to chew. Yet the gold in Loro Piana is in the careful harvesting and production of the highest-quality natural resources – cotton, silk, cashmere, vicuña and its proprietary The Gift of Kings finest Merino wool included. Here, the animals, plants, spinners and dye masters are king.
"We liked the idea of having the yarn and the cashmere speak for itself”
Alessandra Varianini
The company has proved resilient. Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana took over the business in the 1970s, investing in state-of-the-art production that safeguarded the company against rising labour costs in Europe. As the European textile business lost out to Asia in the 1980s, Loro Piana managed to hold its own, running a network of Tuscany-based factories for dyeing, spinning, weaving, knitting and finishing, seven days a week. There is also a manufacturing plant in Mongolia that spins the cashmere yarn, while vicuña is gathered from herds that are native to the Andes Mountains.
Antoine is skilfully steering Loro Piana into the future, eschewing flashy store roll-outs or marketing fireworks in favour of sponsorship of sporting events, the development of the interiors division and a gradual, measured evolution. That consistency and design integrity is why the product is seen as valuable; why business moguls and thought leaders across the globe (check Kendall Roy in Succession) sport its half-zip sweaters and hush-hush sneakers as a badge of honour.
Now, those serene melange Loro sweaters, which by necessity are limited edition, have become a sought-after non-statement. And the wearers are gratitude-signalling to the reuse of that protective, temperature-controlling fine inner-layer hair of the Mongolian goat. Remember to hand wash with gentle soap.
