Loro Piana Awards 2025 Cashmere Prize at 12.89 Microns in New York

Loro Piana awarded its 2025 Cashmere of the Year prize on Tuesday in New York for fiber measuring 12.89 microns. The ceremony, held at The Brant Foundation, also opened the "Master of Cashmere" exhibition tracing the Italian house's cashmere supply chain from Mongolia to its Italian mills.

This was the 11th edition of the award, established in 2015. Three couples of cashmere herders from Inner Mongolia took honors this year:

• First prize: 135.8 kg of greasy cashmere at 12.89 microns.
• Second prize: 87.1 kg at 13.01 microns.
• Third prize: 116 kg at 13.04 microns.

A micron equals one-thousandth of a millimeter; a human hair measures roughly 70 microns. Winners receive a financial reward per kilo of fiber produced plus a handcrafted silver comb symbolizing the combing harvest.

What drives the fiber quality?

The company credits its selective breeding program for the steady gains in fineness since the award's launch. Chief executive officer Frédéric Arnault said: "Since 2009, through The Loro Piana Method, we have worked to improve the quality and fineness of cashmere through a selective breeding program, optimizing production and contributing to the preservation of the Alashan goat."

The method has produced new generations of goats and locked in long-term collaboration with herders and breeders in Inner Mongolia, where the company has sourced since Pier Luigi Loro Piana first traveled there in the 1980s.

The deputy chairman framed the award as a supply-chain relationship tool. "Over the years, we have built strong relationships with local communities, based on trust, mutual respect and a shared commitment to quality," he said. "The Cashmere of the Year Award is a natural expression of these relationships, recognizing the people whose knowledge and dedication are essential to producing the finest cashmere."

How is Loro Piana de-risking supply?

Beyond breeding, the company launched the Resilient Threads project in Mongolia last year. Arnault said it aims "to strengthen the resilience of the cashmere ecosystem and support the well-being of herders, animals and landscapes."

The program targets cashmere cooperatives, herding communities and steppes in Sukhbaatar Province, a vulnerable region. After two years of preparatory work, it was built with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Sustainable Fiber Alliance and the Odyssey Conservation Trust. It aligns with Mongolia's economic, climate, biodiversity and equity goals. The Royal Veterinary College in London, the University of Liège, the Mongolian University of Life Sciences and the Mongolian University of Finance and Economics contribute training and research.

What else sits in the awards pipeline?

LVMH, which has controlled Loro Piana since 2013, also backs two adjacent programs. The Record Bale Award, established in 1997, rewards one Australian and one New Zealand farm for the finest merino bale of the previous year. Last April in Tokyo, the award went to a 10.4-micron merino fiber. The world-record bale sits in a glass container at the Quarona factory in Piedmont until beaten; prior record bales are spun into the ultrafine "Gift of Kings" garment line. The house also funds the Knit Design Award for young designers from leading design schools.

Arnault tied the exhibition to the sourcing story: "It is an opportunity to share the unique expertise behind our products, our commitment to responsible sourcing, and the importance of preserving and transmitting this know-how to future generations."

On capacity, Loro Piana inaugurated a knitwear complex in Ghemme, Piedmont, in September. The 86,000-square-foot plant integrates most stages of fully fashioned knitwear production under one roof — the house's first newly built factory since the 1990s, signalling that vertical control of rare-fiber processing remains the company's core sourcing strategy.