Why the most expensive cashmere in the world is made in a medieval village — and what that has to do with how we dress.
OZEAH EDITORIAL · SPRING/SUMMER 2026 · HERITAGE
Solomeo is not easy to find. The village sits in the Umbrian hills above Perugia, population a few hundred, and the only reason most of the world has heard of it is that Brunello Cucinelli decided to restore it. He bought the medieval castle in 1985, moved his company there from the outskirts of Perugia, and began a decades-long project of reconstruction — the theatre, the amphitheatre, the forum, the library. The piazza where his employees eat lunch together was restored from ruin using techniques unchanged since the fourteenth century.
This is not a branding exercise. Or rather, it is a branding exercise only in the sense that it reflects something Cucinelli genuinely believes: that the conditions in which something is made are inseparable from the thing itself. That a cashmere sweater made by a person who is treated well, paid properly, and works in a beautiful place is a different object from one made under different conditions — even if you cannot see the difference from the outside.
You can debate the philosophy. The clothes are harder to argue with.
What Cashmere Actually Is
Most people wear cashmere without thinking too much about where it comes from. It comes from the undercoat of the Cashmere goat, combed — not sheared — during the moulting season, primarily in Inner Mongolia and parts of Central Asia. The finest fibres, measuring below 14.5 microns in diameter, produce the cashmere that Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli work with. The difference between this and commodity cashmere is the difference between a properly made piece of furniture and flat-pack — they are both technically the same thing, but the experience of owning them is entirely different.
Cucinelli sources from the finest available raw material, processes it with dyes that meet some of the strictest environmental standards in the industry, and knits it on machines that are run slowly enough to preserve the structure of the fibre. The result is a garment that does not pill in the first year of wear, that retains its shape wash after wash, and that becomes, if anything, softer with age.
The SS26 Collection
The Spring/Summer 2026 offering from Cucinelli follows the logic of every collection before it: clothes that dress the person rather than announcing themselves. The palette runs from stone and alabaster through warm sand to the occasional note of dusty sage. Nothing shouts. Everything fits.
The knitwear is, as always, the central story. A fine-gauge linen and silk blend in an almost-white that photographs as ivory. A cotton cable in a weight that bridges spring and autumn, practical in a way that fine cashmere alone cannot be. A loose-knit polo in a shade of camel so perfect it makes every other camel look slightly wrong.
The tailoring for men is equally considered. A linen suit in a mid-stone that will be right at a business meeting, at a summer wedding, or on a terrace somewhere warm. The jacket hangs without effort. The trousers break correctly. These are achievements that look simple and are not.
"The conditions in which something is made are inseparable from the thing itself. Cucinelli believes this. His clothes prove it."
Why It Costs What It Costs
People sometimes balk at Cucinelli prices, and the reaction is understandable — a sweater for £900 is not an easy purchase. But the calculation is worth making honestly. A Cucinelli sweater, looked after properly, will last fifteen to twenty years. Divided across that period, the cost is less than most people spend on mid-market knitwear that lasts two seasons. The better question is not whether the price is high, but whether the value is there. For people who have made this calculation and arrived at yes, the house tends to hold them for a long time.
There is also, beneath the numbers, a less quantifiable thing: the pleasure of owning something made with genuine care, by people for whom the work means something. That pleasure is real, and it is part of what you are paying for.
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Words by the OZEAH editorial team.
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