THREE CENTURIES OF CHALLENGES
AND VICTORIES
The Lanificio Fratelli Piacenza has survived economic crises, wars, occupations and fires, alternating with periods of revival and of rampant optimism, while the family’s solidity, enterprise and courage have always ensured that it plays a leading role. The Piacenza family has shown a consistent, farsighted ability to ride the crest of the wave of its times, occupying the spotlight both industrially and politically, opening a shop in Turin when the French occupation had made the mill lose markets and workers, studying and adopting innovative methods from abroad, being the first in Italy to produce patterned fabrics during the period of the Italian Wars of Independence, discovering and importing a series of noble fibres, gaining the acknowledgement and support of such important politicians as Count Cavour and, above all, creating new markets for their fabrics in France, Belgium, England, Switzerland, the Americas, the Indies and other Asian countries.
SUPER FINE MERINO WOOLS
The Fratelli Piacenza wool mills have always stood out for their determined quest for excellence, right from the very first selection of wools. Their exclusive articles are made using wools sourced in Australia and New Zealand. Demanding parameters guide the selection, from a narrow field that only ever envisages the very finest of fine micron ratings: for the wools used to produce 240s suits, this may be as fine as 11microns. Innovation blends with tradition in these wools, enabling fabrics with exceptional design and performance potentials to be developed..
VICUÑA
Known as the “Yarn of the Gods”, Vicuña earned this reputation for its divine properties: it is one of the world’s finest fibres. Its sheer scarcity, which also means that it is extremely hard to come by, contributes to increasing its value, making it all but priceless. These camelids’ fleeces are shorn by hand or collected along the paths of the high Andean mountain plateaux, where the animals live in the wild.
As a result of special agreements with Peruvian communities, the Fratelli Piacenza wool mills have succeeded in securing a reliable source for the “Fleece of the Gods” and trans- form the fibres to create fabrics in high demand. Festari for Men is proud to offer their rare collection now!
CASHMERE
The road to the finest cash- mere takes us to Alashan. The Fratelli Piacenza wool mills select the noble raw material directly in China, in the region of Inner Mongolia, in this way once again making a mark for its excellence. Destined by this excellence to be the preserve of luxury, the “divine” yarn stimulated the Fratelli Piacenza mills to blaze a trail that goes in only direction: that of growth. It was vitally important for the firm to gain the capacity to start at the origins, so as to take to the wing and fly towards new horizons, experiencing tradition as know-how for development and not as a cage that blocks the creative process towards re- searching new interpretations of luxury.
It is this philosophy that led to the development of our technical cashmeres and worn cashmeres, testimonials of a contemporary collection. The research team has made the most of the thread’s extreme fineness, managing to create a fabric that weighs only 160 grammes.
LINEA CLIMA
Our lively futuristic research and long tradition of know-how have led to the launch of the Clima project, in which the fabrics from the Piacenza Collection are interpreted in a modern vein. These fabrics are used to create a modern outerwear collection that combines luxury with nanotechnological treatments to make them waterproof and PFC-free, so as to respect nature.
Warm, elegant, high-performance and containing absolutely no harmful substances, the Clima fabrics are inspired by the businessman, the modern traveller, to whom they offer a guarantee of maximum comfort without compromising on style. The research team devoted to the Clima line has achieved its objective with fabrics that can take applications of up to three layers of membranes.
HERITAGE
In the world of Fratelli Piacenza, Heritage is a fitting definition for these iconic, unquestionably successful fabrics. They include the Cashmere wools, Baby Camelhair and Cashmere and Silk blends used to make the Skin collection, ideal for creating fabrics for jackets, overcoats and accessories.