Piacenza Cashmere

Piacenza's reputation is built around understanding noble fibres as a raw material and transforming them into exceptional fabrics and products. It is arguably one of the world's great interpreters of cashmere rather than simply one of its spinners, a crucial distinction between it and other mills.

Cashmere is perhaps the clearest expression of that expertise now, in modern times, when exotic travel to search out rare fibres from their source is prevalent and less incredible, even though that is something this family did on historic expeditions that remain an integral piece of their origin story.

Piacenza favours Mongolian material. It identifies Alashan cashmere among its finest selections. The distinction here is more technical rather than romantic, but Piacenza places typical Central Asian cashmere around 17–19 microns and 28–34 mm in length, while its finest Alashan material reaches approximately 15–15.8 microns. Longer fibres are particularly valuable because they allow a spinner to create a strong, coherent yarn without relying excessively on short fibres that can work themselves out of the surface as pills. The objective is therefore not simply the lowest micron number possible, but the difficult combination of fineness, length, uniformity, resilience and hand. This information can flip someone’s understanding of what they’re purchasing, in a market where cashmere is too often sold on the basis of softness alone. It also shows how Piacenza has continued to layer years of study into its foundation, pushing what it does further than is commonly recognized and accepting nothing short of excellent.

A cashmere sweater can be made extraordinarily soft in the shop and still be mediocre cashmere. Aggressive finishing can create immediate softness that translates to the immediate touch, while short fibres and weak yarn construction lead to pilling, loss of definition, and wear after time. Exceptional cashmere has to do more. It needs sufficient fibre length and yarn integrity to remain beautiful after the first impression and pillowy softness has disappeared. Piacenza’s philosophy is that a mediocre fibre can never become an exceptional yarn regardless of processing.

So, there is the finishing. Many mills can buy excellent cashmere. Very few can finish it exceptionally. Piacenza is known for preserving traditional finishing techniques, including the use of natural teasels. They take painstaking time to mount the dried teasel flowers in wooden frames, then lift the nap of a finished cloth by drawing the teasels across its face to raise and refine delicate surfaces. This process creates a softer, more natural hand while avoiding some of the harsher effects associated with aggressive mechanical finishing.

There are other extraordinary names in this world. Cariaggi is arguably the more focused benchmark when discussing luxury cashmere yarn specifically; its identity is inseparable from specialist spinning. Piacenza occupies a broader position. It is a textile house whose knowledge runs from raw noble fibre through yarn, fabric, finishing, and ultimately finished garments. Cariaggi is one of the names to know if you want to understand great cashmere yarn. Piacenza is one of the names to know if you want to understand what can be done with this great fibre.

For some of our knitted sweaters and accessories, we wanted to buy not just cashmere, but Piacenza's interpretation of it.

The company doesn't sell knitwear on the idea that its Alashan cashmere is just exceptional, or even better than others outside the immediate Alashan family. It has spent generations learning what to do with any cashmere fibres once they arrive from wherever they are sourced, Alashan or not. That is what they are offering.

Its cashmere knitwear shows the precision involved in working with any cashmere fibre to spin it into gold. Piacenza uses different gauges and constructions to produce different results; one current pure-cashmere crewneck, for example, is knitted at 12 gauge, which creates a medium-light, compact, regular structure while retaining the fibre's characteristic lightness and warmth. That’s more than making a raw-material executive decision. It is a manufacturing choice.

So when we choose a finished Piacenza garment or accessory, those decisions are part of what we choose ourselves. That’s also why we have used them for so many of our basic sweater blocks and turn to them for classic accessories, home, or personal items as well.