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Madeleine Fitzpatrick

Production editor, Specialist Publications and China desks


There are impulse wardrobes, and then there are considered wardrobes – the kind not shaped by seasonal novelty but rather by materials and craftsmanship with a longer story to tell.
For Loro Piana, that story begins in nature: with the changing of the seasons, the knowledge of local herders, and the scarcest, most precious materials.

At the heart of this philosophy is baby cashmere, a very rare fibre gathered from the first fleece of a certain breed of domestic goats (Capra hircus) when they are less than a year old. The kids grow an exceptionally fine, downy underfleece to ward off the extreme cold of their home range on Inner Mongolia’s Alashan Plateau. As temperatures rise in the spring, the kids naturally shed this ultra-soft layer, which is gently combed off by herders at exactly the right moment.

With each kid’s underfleece yielding only about 30 grams of usable fibre, there is no way to scale up such production. The delicate threads have an average diameter of 13.5 microns, compared with some 15.5 microns for adult cashmere – a difference that is felt as much as measured, with baby cashmere possessing an extraordinary lightness to the touch.

The idea for baby cashmere came from Pier Luigi Loro Piana, grandson of the maison’s founder, while he was visiting goat herders in China in the mid-1990s. Just getting the concept off the ground would take immeasurable patience, however. For a decade, the maison worked with select herders to separate the first fleece of the kids from the adult cashmere with which it had traditionally been blended. Then, in Italy, Loro Piana developed the technical expertise to spin and weave the delicate raw material without compromising its character. The first baby cashmere creations finally arrived in 2008.

That same respect for provenance, process and performance carries into Loro Piana’s fall/winter 2026-27 Back to School collection, which approaches early-autumn dressing through light layers, relaxed silhouettes and materials chosen for the changeable weeks between high summer and the cooler months.

The Spagna jacket, an icon introduced in 1998, appears in Pecora Nera (dark undyed merino wool), while the suede Maremma bomber offers a contemporary interpretation of the Tuscan country jacket. Elsewhere, heritage wools take centre stage with varieties such as Sopra Visso and Merino d’Arles used in tweed outerwear, featuring felted finishes rendered in the rich, earthy shades of a woodland walk: moss green, burnt orange, rust, brown and beige.
The season’s most quietly persuasive innovation may be CashDenim, which combines Japanese denim with fine cashmere. Woven slowly on rare vintage looms in Japan, the material brings denim’s familiar utility into dialogue with cashmere’s warmth, appearing in straight-leg jeans and sporty jackets in indigo and mid-blue. It is a material proposition for the in-between season: familiar in appearance, yet notably softer and warmer to wear.


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Style Edit: Loro Piana’s baby cashmere and summer-to-autumn layers

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Reared in Inner Mongolia, these goats yield the ultra-fine fibre used to make Loro Piana’s baby cashmere. Photo: Handout

Loro Piana fall/winter 2026-27 menswear. Photo: Handout

Loro Piana fall/winter 2026-27 womenswear. Photo: Handout

Enduring the extreme conditions of Inner Mongolia, these goats grow a dense, protective undercoat that yields rare baby cashmere. Photo: Handout

Spinning cashmere. Photo: Handout

Loro Piana’s cashmere store. Photo: Handout

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Sylva dress. Photo: Handout

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La Watchparty at Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet in March. Photo: Diora Muslimova

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Lyas at La Watchparty Afterparty, co-hosted by Madonna and Charli XCX, in June. Photo: Ricardo Mesinst

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Rare raw materials and exacting craftsmanship inform the maison’s approach to exceptional fibres and its fall/winter 2026-27 Back to School collection


Rare raw materials and exacting craftsmanship inform the maison’s approach to exceptional fibres and its fall/winter 2026-27 Back to School collection.


Style Edit: Loro Piana’s baby cashmere and summer-to-autumn layers

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Rare raw materials and exacting craftsmanship inform the maison’s approach to exceptional fibres and its fall/winter 2026-27 Back to School collection

Rare raw materials and exacting craftsmanship inform the maison’s approach to exceptional fibres and its fall/winter 2026-27 Back to School collection