In this uncertain historical context, the need to receive reassuring and edifying news is even more felt in the prestigious headquarters of the Milanese Rotary Club "I Giardini" on 7 March an evening took place in which the dominant themes were reconstruction, goodwill, patronage. The spectacular rubble of which we were astonished spectators were not, however, those of the current war calamity, but those of the destructive fury of the earthquake that involved the Marche region in October 2016.
The President Gianfranco Polo presented as Guest of Honor of the evening the well-known textile industrialist Pier Luigi Loro Piana, who with deep passion and participation told how it was possible, in a very short time, to concretely help the master craftsmen of the town of Visso, one of the centers most affected by the earthquake.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the Biellese entrepreneur immediately felt he had to do something that went beyond the simple financial contribution and that would allow not to disperse the rich fabric of craft, craftsmanship and tradition typical of the area.
In a few months, about forty generous benefactors led by Pier Luigi Loro Piana therefore realized the "Visso Project", a multi-service structure with an advanced concept in which "La Compagnia dei Maestri Artigiani" could continue to produce and market typical products and function as an "agorà", or as the new pulsating center of the country.
Special attention was paid to the resumption of breeding and production of "Sopravissana", the best wool for clothing produced in Italy, who’s interesting history is intertwined with papal Rome and the Papal States.
This initiative is also to be seen within a framework of global sustainability, in fact, as reiterated by Pier Luigi Loro Piana: "the socio-economic impact that Loro Piana has started in these territories has re-enhanced these wools and cut the logistical costs of production compared to imported wool."
What makes "Sopra Visso" special is the noble ancestry of the sheep that produce it and the close kinship with the extraordinary extra fine Merinos "Australia" and "New Zealand".
To better understand the importance of this group of sheep, it is necessary to explain that sheep of breed "Merinos" have a very long and noble past; "Merino" derives from the name of the Merinids, a Muslim-Berber dynasty (Arab Banū Marīn) who reigned over Morocco in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and who introduced some flocks in Spain.
The characteristic of the Merinos gene is represented by a particular curl of the hair bulb which involves a greater fineness of fleece and therefore a higher quality of the wool of the sheep that are provided with it. It follows that thermal insulation and pleasantness to the touch of the garments produced are directly proportional to the micronage of the raw material of which they are made.
The breeding of this breed was the exclusive right of the Spanish court until the eighteenth century, so much so that the trade of pure specimens was considered a crime punishable by death. In 1723, some chiefs were then exported to Sweden, but the first major expedition of Merinos "Escurial" was sent by Charles III of Spain to his cousin, Prince Xavier the Elector of Saxony, only in 1765.
Subsequently, Louis XVI of France, received in 1786 as many as 366 sheep selected from 10 different "cañadas": these constituted the precious "flock of the King" at the Royal Farm in Rambouillet; for their value, the specimens carrying this Merinos gene became authentic "goods" of exchange, favors and political agreements between the various powerful of Europe.
The Italian wool "Sopravissana" was originated from the cross between the native Italian sheep and some Rambouillet Merino Rambouillet rams donated by the court of France and distributed in the papal farms during the eighteenth century, creating an Italian "Merino". Although it cannot compete in finesse with the pieces from Oceania, it still allows you to make garments with wool of about twenty-four microns with a vaguely "Tweed" or "Sportex" look.
And it is in this perspective of continuity that the range of fabrics of Lanificio Loro Piana has been enriched with a group of articles produced with these proudly Italian wools of Sopra Visso, which we could admire in a garment made of 4 batavia armor and weighing about 320 gr / mt lin, with a severe hand but not so shaggy as to remember the fabrics of the British archipelago.
All this represents an Italian way in ennobling a traditional popular heritage, in which we find the expertise and noble pride of the truffle hunters of the Marche region who have been wearing garments produced with these precious wools since ancient times.
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