THE JOURNAL
PIACENZA 1733 Is A Family-Run Fabric Mill And Knitwear Brand Three Centuries In The Making
The word “heritage” gets bandied around an awful lot in fashion, and for good reason. It evokes a sense of tradition and solidity; it speaks of something that has stood the test of time. Little wonder that so many companies with a few miles on the clock choose to build their brand identities around their histories. But how long does it take before you can truly call yourself a heritage brand? Twenty years? Thirty? Fifty?
How about 289? With a heritage that can be traced all the way back to the early 18th century, the Italian knitwear and fabric mill company PIACENZA 1733 makes even long-established fashion houses look like mere start-ups by comparison. A producer of fabrics since 1733 when Mr Pietro Francesco Piacenza and his son Giovanni founded a woollen mill in Pollone, a town in the foothills of the Italian Alps, PIACENZA 1733 is now best known for its exceptional cashmere, a selection of which is newly available on MR PORTER.
Just as impressive as the brand’s longevity is the fact that it remains entirely family-owned. But while this is an increasingly unusual arrangement in today’s era of multinational corporations, it’s not as rare as you might think in Italy, a country where a culture of “family first” is deeply rooted in corporate life. According to Messrs Vasiliy and Ettore Piacenza, the 14th-generation descendants now in charge of running the company, this national trait goes some way to explaining why the words “Made In Italy” remain so synonymous with quality. “The family business model means that artisanal workshops, generation after generation, can become industrial facilities without losing the essence of their knowhow,” the brothers explain.
Keeping things in the family has also liberated them to think long-term instead of quarterly or yearly. “We put first what is best for the company, not the shareholders,” they say. “This means focusing on investments that will allow the company to innovate.” It’s thanks to this long-term vision – and an investment strategy that sees eight per cent of annual turnover reinvested into newer, more efficient machinery – that PIACENZA 1733 now boasts a fully integrated supply chain enabling them to control every step of production, from raw materials to finished product. “We select the best fibers that Mother Nature makes available and utilise the best processes to emphasise their characteristics,” they say.
For all its benefits, running a centuries-old company like PIACENZA 1733 isn’t without its challenges. One of the trickiest is balancing a respect for the company’s heritage with the more immediate need to stay relevant in a rapidly changing market. Fortunately for the Piacenza family, the winds of change appear to be blowing in their direction. “Today’s consumers are becoming more conscious of choosing quality pieces with an authentic story,” say the brothers, highlighting qualities that PIACENZA knitwear just happens to have in spades.
Rather than pursue trends at the expense of the time-honoured classics on which the company’s reputation was built, PIACENZA 1733’s strategy is to cater to a wide range of tastes, offering high-quality, hand-me-down basics alongside more directional pieces, or what the brothers refer to as “emotive fantasies”.
For AW22 these take the form of vibrant, ikat-inspired jacquard scarves designed to be worn as blankets, combed alpaca-wool sweaters, jewel-toned brushed-cashmere and other pieces inspired by the PIACENZA archive, which contains photographic records of the family's travels throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
“These pieces are expressions of faded memories which enrich us on our path,” explain the brothers, summing up neatly the balance of tradition and innovation, and the sense of a past flowing seamlessly into the present, that defines PIACENZA 1733 today.