Loro Piana

Loro Piana is an Italian company specialising in clothing and textile products, claiming to be the world's largest cashmere manufacturer. It was founded in 1924 and is owned by French multinational holding and conglomerate LVMH.

The company has three divisions: the textile division produces high quality textiles from cashmere, vicuña wool, linen, and merino wool; the fashion luxury goods division produces menswear, womenswear, shoes and accessories; and the interior division produces interior products.

History


Originally from Trivero, the Loro Piana family started as merchants of wool at the beginning of the 19th century. In the second half of this century, the family moved its activity to Valsesia and founded the wool spinning mill Fratelli Lora e Compagnia, followed by the wool spinning mill Zignone & C. in Quarona at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1924, the engineer Pietro Loro Piana founded the company Loro Piana & C. in Quarona.

After taking the lead of the company in the 1960s, Franco Loro Piana, grandson of Pietro, started to export high quality fabrics to Europe, America and Japan.

In the 1970s, the company was directed by Franco's sons, Sergio and Pier Luigi, whose focus was on top quality fabrics development, including cashmere and extra fine wools. Sergio and Pier's research gave birth to the Tasmanian fabric.

In the 1980s, Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana started to diversify the business, therefore launching their first ready to wear collection and creating the luxury goods division. The interior division was launched in 2006.

In 2013, LVMH Group acquired an 80% stake in Loro Piana, becoming the major shareholder. Sergio Loro Piana died the same year. In 2017, LVMH acquired another 5% stake in the company.

In November 2021, Damien Bertrand was appointed as CEO of the brand.

Since 2022, Loro Piana has established its headquarters at Cortile della Seta in Milan's Brera district.

Stores


As of July 2022, Loro Piana distributes its products in Europe, North America, the Middle East, China, South Korea, Indonesia, and Japan. It has a total of 136 stores that are directly operated and has online stores on Shopee and Tokopedia in Indonesia.

Operations
Loro Piana is vertically integrated, and it handles all stages of production, from the harvesting of natural fibres to the delivery of the finished product to stores.

In 2012, turnover reached €700 million and net income represented 20% of sales. In December 2013, LVMH announced that Antoine Arnault would become chairman of Loro Piana. The company achieved 1 billion euro of sales in 2019.

Criticism
In March 2024, a bloomberg news documentary short on youtube sharply criticised Loro Piana’s company practices in terms of the money paid to the communities that gather vicuña wool. As the top global buyer of vicuna fibre, Loro Piana's secretive supply chain highlights the use of cheap labour among Peru's least fortunate to make some of the most expensive clothing in the world.