Centre for knitwear excellence opens at Loro Piana site in Piedmont
High-end fashion brand Loro Piana has opened a new centre for knitwear excellence. It opened the new 8,000-square-metre site at Ghemme in Piedmont at the end of September.
This is the first new manufacturing site that Loro Piana has opened in more than three decades. It said its aim was to bring under one roof “every stage of the creative and production process, from research and development to finishing”.
It went on to say that choosing Ghemme for the new site was a reflection of the company’s deep connection to this part of northern Italy, which it described as an area in which textile expertise has been “cultivated and passed down through generations”.
Loro Piana established a worsted wool spinning mill on the same site in 1987. The original water tower and caretaker’s house have been preserved. The house will now become a dedicated training centre for passing on “the specialised crafts of knitwear” to new generations of workers.
The new centre for knitwear excellence will work with cashmere, baby cashmere, vicuña fibre, merino and proprietary Pecora Nera (‘black sheep’) wool from dark-hued merinos. It will combine craftsmanship with advanced technology.
Image: LVMH.
