Loro Piana 年度羊绒奖现场：羊绒墙、小山羊与 Bruce Springsteen 现身

In addition to his role as the company’s deputy chairman, he is widely credited with creating the “baby goat cashmere” that thrust Loro Piana into the upper echelons of luxury when it was first revealed in 2008. “It took me many years to convince the herdsmen not to blend the 3% of baby cashmere fiber with the rest of the older goats,” he recalled. “It required extra work, but the difference was so clear, and it is this measure of quality that creates wealth for this population and attracts younger herdsmen to join them.”

In the room were many Loro Piana loyalists, including Huma Abedin, Gucci Westman, Jeff Koons, and Jessica Springsteen, the accomplished show jumper who serves as an ambassador for the brand’s equestrian line. She was joined by her father, the legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen, who was gleefully received by a room largely filled with Italian, French, and American guests. Evidently, the appeal of The Boss is universal.

Also on hand was Jeremy Strong, who has been outfitted by Loro Piana both on and off screen many, many times, though his first memory of the brand predates his career. “I have a memory of being in Italy and seeing the chicest man I’d ever seen in my life with two wolfhounds in a vintage Maserati convertible, and I saw the Loro Piana red mark on the back of his collar, so that image has forever emblazoned itself in the aspirational sky of my mind—just wanting to be that guy in that car,” he told Vogue.

For this occasion, Strong sported a monochromatic suit in a precise shade of Loro Piana brown-beige, and went on to tour the exhibition that had been built to highlight the farmers and their bounty. It included one room with walls of voluminous, fluffy strands of cashmere fiber which ballooned and wafted toward guests walking by. It quickly began clinging to the arms and shoulders and heads of many partygoers before an army of dashing men would offer to remove it with lint brushes with glossy tortoise handles. (In Loro Piana land, even the lint catchers are a considered detail.)

“I think what I was struck by upstairs walking through the exhibition was the way Loro Piana achieves such specificity by hand in this age of mechanical reproduction, this age where everything is computers and AI, and everything is mechanized and done by a machine,” Strong later added. “There is this care, and tactile beauty, and sort of sweat equity that goes into creating these garments. I find something very moving about that.”

The evening’s dinner—beef carpaccio, a plate of saffron risotto, and a fig tart—set the stage for further reminiscing about Loro Piana vintage finds and making plans to visit Mongolia to see the goats and the herdsmen firsthand, followed by an announcement.

After all these ceremonies celebrating the finest 100 kilos of cashmere fibers, something would finally be made using all of these fibers. “We have kept these winning fibers for the last 11 years, and we will be making a collection using them,” Frédéric Arnault, the company’s CEO, told the room. “It will be very small quantities.”