How Loro Piana is future-proofing your cashmere addiction
Esquire visited the wilds of Mongolia to learn more about the brand’s innovative Resilient Threads project
WHEN LORO PIANA offered to take me to Mongolia to learn more about how its cashmere – arguably the world’s finest – is sourced, I didn’t need asking twice.
The only catch was a quick change in Frankfurt and a journey across Russian airspace which had me holding onto my cashmere Loro Piana flight scarf for dear life. Ultimately, however, it was a small price to pay for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to one of the most remote and least densely populated countries on earth, in the company of the sotto voce jewel in LVMH’s crown.
For those unversed, Mongolia is the vast, landlocked country wedged between Russia and China. Winter temperatures can plunge to -50°C, and roughly a third of the population still live as nomads. Ulaanbaatar, the capital, offers a collision of Soviet-era architecture and modern Asian energy: a touch Moscow, a soupçon Seoul, a lot its own thing.
It is Mongolia’s extreme climate that makes it a natural home for Capra Hircus cashmere goats. The animals grow a layer of downy fibre close to their skin, beneath their longer outer hair, to protect them from the bitter cold. The fibre is exceptionally fine and insulating, and is gathered in spring, when the goats naturally begin to shed their winter undercoats.
It’s at this point that Loro Piana steps in. I was lucky enough to visit the brand’s cashmere-processing facility in Ulaanbaatar – the only Loro Piana factory outside of Italy. This is where the raw, oily, winter-worn fibres are sorted, washed and dehaired before being sent to Italy to be spun, dyed and woven into the coats, jumpers and, well, flight scarves that we know, cling to and covet.
The process is rigorous. First, the fibres are scoured to remove impurities. They are then painstakingly dehaired and inspected for quality. Much of that inspection is still done by hand. Once baled – in new “smart bales” that make cashmere provenance easy to track – they travel to Italy, where the next stage of their transformation begins.
Any fibres that have been stored need to be reinvigorated before baling. To do this, they are pumped through a chimney into a room that looks as though it has been filled with clouds. So far, so Willy Wonkashmere.
Loro Piana’s relationship with Mongolia doesn’t stop at the sourcing of the fibre. Under CEO Frédéric Arnault, the brand launched Resilient Threads in 2025, a five-year programme designed to support cashmere cooperatives and herding communities in Sukhbaatar Province, while strengthening biodiversity across Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe.
My visit coincided with COP17, the 17th session of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, held in Ulaanbaatar this August. The conference focused on land degradation and the future of pastoral communities – subjects that sit at the heart of Resilient Threads.
The programme takes a “One Health” approach, recognising that the wellbeing of people, animals and the environment is interconnected. Its first mobile One Health Hub is intended to bring healthcare, vaccination campaigns and training to remote herding communities. The programme has also introduced a biodiversity centre and seed bank focus on restoring land and protecting plants essential to the local ecosystem.
Resilient Threads also centres around a rehabilitation programme for the Bayandelger red goat, a local breed which produces a uniquely grey cashmere, and whose future is under pressure from increasingly severe weather (such as intense winter storms known locally as “Dzuds”). Improving the resilience of the animal helps protect the livelihoods of the people who depend on it.
Because ultimately the quality of that jumper you’ve kept so lovingly in the freezer throughout the summer depends on the animal it comes from, the land it grazes on and the people who care for it – and the hope is that Resilient Threads helps keep that chain intact for many years to come.
And yes, my journey home involved another stop in Frankfurt and flyby St Petersburg. By then, I was holding onto my Loro Piana cashmere flight scarf even more devotedly than before.
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