MEN OF THE CLOTH
The town of Biella in northern Italy is famous for playing host to many of the finest cloth makers in the world. For Piacenza, this is doubly true: their history is inextricably woven into the fabric of the town itself. Although the company usually quotes 1733 as its conventional founding date, the Piacenza family has been working in the Biella region’s textile industry since as early as 1623, and perhaps even earlier. “We know because we have some documents from [the nearby township of] Pollone dating back to 1623 stating, ‘Piacenza family: merchants of wool’,” says Ettore Piacenza, who today stewards the company alongside his brother, Vasiliy. “That’s our first trace.” In the late 1800s, under the guidance of
