ML - Vegas Magazine

2014 - Issue 8 - December

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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photography by andy barnham (factory) GLOBAL GOODS, ANCIENT GOODS Traveling with a small circle of two to three trusted researchers, Pier Luig i frequently leads international t rips to uncover new materials. "It's important that some- body who wants to judge new products has a deep knowledge of the raw material," he explains. Much of t he fabr ic used i n t he bra nd's most coveted pieces comes f rom t he v icuña, a Sout h American relative of the llama. Due to poaching, at one point only 5,000 vicuña remained. In the 1980s, Loro Piana began working with local governments to safeguard the animal, and in 2008 it established the nature reserve Dr. Franco Loro Piana Reserva (na med a f ter t he fou nder's nephew). Today, t he vicuña head count is approximately 180,000. Loro Piana is the top producer of vicuña, considered the finest fiber that can be legally culled from an adult animal. Only 12.5 to 13 microns thick, the resulting wool is incomparable in softness and quality. But it is an ancient natural fiber once utilized for handcrafted monks' garments and sacred to the Buddha that is Pier Luigi's latest preoccupation—and with good reason. "An old friend of mine, Choichiro Motoya ma , gave me a piece of fabr ic made i n Myanmar. He said, 'This is from the lotus f lower.' I touched it, and it was different than anything else; it looks like raw silk, has the shine of a linen, but it's soft." Immediately smitten, Pier Luigi decided to fast-track production, and in 2010 he contracted with the local communit y to produce the lotus-f lower fiber. "This fabric is the greenest textile fabric of the world," he notes. "There is no electricity involved, no engine that works on the machinery, nothing." T he stems of t he aquat ic pla nt produce a n extremely fine raw material akin to linen and raw silk. But it has to be hand-worked on wooden looms; from the moment the f lowers are destemmed, the filaments must be extracted within 24 hours or the material is no longer usable. It takes 6,500 stems to obt a in a litt le over four ya rds of t he breat hable, light-as-air yarn needed for a single cut length of a blazer. The production supports an ancient art and economy in jeopardy. "We will not lose this tradi- tion, which was ready to die," Pier Luigi says. Given this hands-on approach, a limited number of blazers are produced each year. Packaged in a beaut i f u l, ha ndcra f ted lacquer box, t he L ot us Flower Jacket—ava ilable only in it s natura l ecru color—is custom priced, and limited-cut lengths are available for made-to-order blazers. A NEW LEVEL OF LUXURY To some, the merger of Loro Piana with LVMH, which also owns presti- gious brands such as Veuve Clicquot, TAG Heuer, Dom Pérignon, Céline, Loewe, and Givenchy, was a surprising move. For Pier Luigi, however, it made perfect sense. "The group has the know-how, the system, management, and the potential to continue and develop the strategy Loro Piana already put in place," he says. "That's why we selected LVMH for the future of the company." LVMH is also a commit- ted advocate of env ironment a l protect ion a nd a member of the United Nat ions Global Compact, which requires its signatories to apply and promote 10 principles in the fields of human rights, labor, and the environment. "Quality is the prime character of everything we do," Pier Luigi says. "We've built a consciousness t hat high qua lit y is related to natura l f ibers." By "quality," he refers to unparalleled texture, color, ref inement —a nd t he avoida nce of a det r iment a l impact on the environment. "If you put a jacket of wool under t he dir t , it w ill die. T he nylon jacket never dies." Encore Las Vegas, 702-770-5463; The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-369-0497; The Shops at Crystals, 702-696-0033; loropiana.com V "Machinery can do nothing without people who can Manage it." — pier luigi loro piana Managers and office staff of Loro Piana predecessor F.lli Lora and Company Woollen Mill, in Valsesia, in northern Italy, in the late 1800s. Loro Piana's sheep- to-shop production process allows for tight quality control. 52  vegasmagazine.com Style Fashion Conscience

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