THAT EXTRA SPECIAL TOUCH

Loro Piana celebrates its 100th anniversary and deep connection to China with its first-ever exhibition, If You Know, You Know. Loro Piana’s Quest for Excellence, in Shanghai

- Words IAN LEE in SHANGHAI

So specialised is Loro Piana in the processing of the finest cashmere, vicuña and wool that one can certainly associate the abbreviation “IYKYK”, which stands for “if you know, you know”, with the house. Well, celebrating its 100th anniversary and the Maison’s strong links to China, Loro Piana named its first-ever exhibition with a wink and a nod to its insider reputation, calling it If You Know, You Know. Loro Piana’s Quest for Excellence.

Shanghai’s Museum of Art Pudong was selected as the venue not merely due to the city’s status as a magnetic financial hub but because, more fundamentally, China is where the company sources many of its top raw materials — in 1986, Pier Luigi Loro Piana (one of the two brothers behind the Italian luxury brand) travelled to Inner Mongolia, China, for the first time in search of the best cashmere, and a year later, the house opened a raw material laboratory in China, where the quality and purity of Loro Piana’s precious cashmere fibres are checked.

Curated by exhibition-maker Judith Clark, the impressive and immersive