Shhhhh!
The stealth-wealth brand Loro Piana is celebrating 100 years
Succession’s
favourite luxury label is marking a major milestone
Jessica Beresford. Photography by Kayla Connors. Styling by
Abby Adler. Models, Aliza Jarmon and Raffaele Giolli OCTOBER 1 2024
https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/c1ed1fee-5ef7-4055-85b0-a583735ec141
Despite having no obvious branding or showy colours, the
Loro Piana look is distinctive. Damien Bertrand, Loro Piana’s CEO, is a case in
point: sitting in his office in the brand’s headquarters – a historic
palazzo in central Milan – he’s dressed in head-to-toe navy, wearing a
long-sleeved polo knit, slim-fit trousers and a pair of the brand’s
minimal Summer Walk loafers. The look is relaxed, easy, yet unassumingly rich;
a look that, with the help of shows such as Succession, is now widely understood
to be emblematic of the Loro Piana brand. You may recognise it via Gwyneth
Paltrow, who wore Loro Piana in court last year, or on David Beckham and Oprah
Winfrey. Its unbranded, rubber-soled Walk slip-ons have become a quiet
signifier among tech billionaires and art dealers alike.
“We are not about logos, we are not about branding – we are
discreet,” says Bertrand, a 51-year-old Frenchman who joined Loro Piana three
years ago after spending five years at Dior. The house now has 145
standalone stores and concessions worldwide, including
29 in mainland China. Its owner LVMH does not reveal individual
sales earnings for its brands, but recent reports have
put annual revenues at around €1bn.
“Our first signature is the touch,” adds Bertrand,
pinching his shirt between his fingers. “And when you think about
it, we are probably the only maison that has that – you
recognise the touch of Loro Piana cashmere.”
This tactility is a trait the brand has been
cultivating for a century. Its autumn‑winter collection, the largest
yet, will highlight the breadth and depth
of its material sourcing. A Harrods
takeover in November will see a full
transformation of the store, including its façade, celebrating the “chain of hands” that feed into it. “We thought the 100-year anniversary was a
good opportunity to celebrate the story of
the family and the story of what we do,” says Bertrand, who is the main
spokesperson for the brand (it has never had a creative director, and
has no imminent plans to install one).
Loro Piana was founded as a wool trader in 1924 in Quarona,
in the Italian region of Piedmont, by the engineer Pietro Loro Piana. He
came from a family of merchants whose quest was “exploring the world for the
most precious raw materials, and engineering them into beautiful garments”,
says Bertrand. In the 1960s, under Pietro’s grandson Franco Loro
Piana, the company started producing fabric, exporting throughout Europe,
America and Japan. In the 1980s, the next generation, brothers Sergio and
Pier Luigi Loro Piana, began producing ready-to-wear.
In 2013, LVMH bought an 80 per cent stake in the
company for €2.57bn, in a year when sales were expected to be €700mn.
Since then, Loro Piana – which was a successful yet slightly old-fashioned
heritage brand – has undergone a major repositioning, with collaborations with
Japanese streetwear artist Hiroshi Fujiwara and New Balance, as well as
more buzzy releases, including loungewear capsules and its trademarked
CashDenim – an ultra-luxury line of jeans (starting at £1,080).
“I’ve been aware of Loro Piana for a very long
time, somewhat like an Alpinist is aware of a distant mountain peak,”
says Jeremy Strong, who played Succession scion Kendall Roy and is
now a brand ambassador. He first bought Loro Piana in his 30s,
when he started making a living as an actor. “They were clothes that
I wished to have and would sometimes save up for a single sweater
and then live in it.”
The anniversary year has not been without its hitches. A
report by Bloomberg in March this year called into question the brand’s
labour practices in Peru, where it sources its vicuña, and highlighted the
disparity between luxury price tags and the amount paid for the raw
materials. At the time, the president of the Lucanas peasant community
defended its relationship with the brand, saying it relies on its business,
while Loro Piana said it “represents a key economic support locally, protecting
and fortifying the demand and the value of the vicuña fibre, regardless of
market dynamics”.
“What has been written didn’t correspond to the reality and
to our commitment in Peru for the past 30 years,” says Bertrand, “so
we officially refuted it, saying that [the report] was full of
misinterpretation and inaccuracies…We believe [we] are positive for the
people, for the economy, and for the animals also. My point of view
is we will continue to do [business], and we will do more, in
terms of social, in terms of education, in terms of health.”
Bertrand says the vicuña scandal has not impacted
sales. And the analysts agree. “My understanding is that Loro Piana is doing
very well,” says Erwan Rambourg, global head of consumer and retail research at
HSBC. “Clearly, these are tough times for luxury, but the higher end
has been a lot more resilient. Brands like Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli,
Hermès and, to a certain extent, Zegna, where you get the sense that
you’re paying more, but hopefully the product is longer-lasting and not really
seasonal in nature. I think they’re at the right place right now.”
Loro Piana is continuing to push its material and
sourcing messaging: its latest releases are products made with undyed dark
merino wool, called Pecora Nera, which is sourced from a farm in
New Zealand, as well as Cheviot, a historic wool from Scotland.
Bertrand is also enthusiastic about the brand’s annual Record Bale competition,
which started in 1997 and awards farms for producing ever-finer wool.
The current world record, set in 2023, measures 10.2 microns (by
comparison, the average human hair is around 50 to 70 microns), and feels as
soft as candyfloss. The brand uses these bales for custom orders for its top
spenders. Says Bertrand: “We can only do about 50 to 60 jackets
or suits with this.”
The brand is also developing other categories, including
jewellery, handbags and interiors. Yet Bertrand insists that Loro Piana
will never be a “fashion” brand. “We don’t do products according to the latest
trends,” he says. “What we do are products that have the highest quality and
that you can keep for your whole life. We do investment pieces.” Adds
Rambourg: “The touch and feel and quality is not just perceived, it’s
real.”
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