Why we chose them
Zegna Baruffa Lane Borgosesia is a worsted spinning mill in the Biella wool district of Piedmont, and one of the oldest and most complete in Italy. The story starts in 1850, when the Antongini brothers set up a worsted spinning mill in Valsesia — chosen because it sat on the sheep-migration routes, where the flocks were shorn and the wool washed in the Sesia. Today's company was formed in 2009 by bringing three historic houses under one roof: Zegna Baruffa, Filatura di Chiavazza and Botto Poala. It remains one of the few fully verticalised spinners left, controlling the process from fibre to finished yarn.
Its reputation rests on one thing above all: making superfine merino behave like a luxury fibre. In the 1980s Baruffa launched Cashwool®, a very fine worsted merino yarn (around 19–19.5 micron) that is as soft as cashmere and as lustrous as silk — a benchmark the trade still measures itself against. That is the standard we wanted for a men's fine-gauge knit: fibre fine enough to wear next to the skin, spun evenly enough to hold a clean, flat, tailored surface.
We use Baruffa's extra-fine merino — a 100% pure-wool 2/30 count — for the Perfect V-neck and Crewneck, the everyday layer where the wool has to feel soft, sit flat, and keep its shape wash after wash.
