Programmable knitted fabrics are central to BYBORRE, the Amsterdam textile studio founded by Borre Akkersdijk and Arnoud Haverlag. FILA began as a Biella knitwear business in 1911, later developing the tennis clothing associated with its sportswear range. Piacenza combines wool and cashmere production with finished knitwear, carrying out spinning and knitting within its own facilities.
What makes great knitwear & cashmere?
This plate lists 213 shops in 39 countries. Paris has the most with 19, followed by Milan with 9. Among these shops, 15 sell online, going by their own descriptions.
Ask for the fibre and the ply: ask for the exact fibre and the yarn weight rather than judging softness by hand alone.
Ask where it was knitted: ask whether the piece was hand-knitted, hand-framed or machine-knitted, and where.
Ask how to wash it: ask for the care instructions and whether the shop offers repairs.
Explore knitwear & cashmere
Use the city plates when they appear below, or open any store for its official door and related ORBIS city and craft links.
Founded 1911 in Biella by brothers Ettore and Giansevero Fila as knitwear makers; the 1976 Settanta track top became a signature piece after Björn Borg wore it at Wimbledon from 1975.
Best for Settanta polo, tennis heritage; Settanta Borg polos; Heritage sportswear
FILA was founded in 1911 in Biella, in the Italian Alps, by brothers Ettore and Giansevero Fila, initially producing knitwear and underwear for the local Alpine population rather than sportswear. The company's transformation into an athletic brand came decades later, under managing director Enrico Frachey from 1968, culminating in the 1973 'White Line' tennis collection that broke with all-white club convention by introducing color and bolder silhouettes to tennis apparel.
From 1975, FILA sponsored Björn Borg, designing the tracksuits, shorts and polos he wore through his Wimbledon-winning years. The Settanta track top, designed in 1976 with its jersey construction and contrast piping, became the piece most associated with that partnership and remains one of FILA's most recognized archive designs today.
The brand's roots as an Alpine textile maker, rather than a sportswear label from the outset, are part of what distinguishes its history from competitors founded directly as athletic-wear companies.
Piacenza traces its textile business to 1733 in Pollone, within the Biella district of northern Italy. The house now sells knitwear and ready-to-wear alongside scarves, drawing on a range of natural fibres. Its factory is in Pollone, while the published ready-to-wear showroom address is in Milan.
Best for Knitwear and natural-fibre scarves
Piacenza's knitwear has its roots in Pollone, in the Biella textile district of northern Italy. The company's range includes ready-to-wear and accessories made with natural fibres. Its account of production is useful for understanding what sits behind a finished garment, beyond the name on the label.
An order begins with a technical sheet specifying the yarn and model, with instructions prepared at the Pollone plant. Knitting machines make the main body separately from sleeves and collars. Assembly then combines hand work with specialised machines. This is a sequence of different operations, rather than a claim that the whole garment is hand-knitted.
Washing brings out the fabric's softness before machine pressing and hand finishing. The finished knit is folded and packed with its technical sheet and identifying code. Piacenza describes that code as a way to follow a garment through the process. When comparing pieces, the fibre composition and construction therefore offer a more useful starting point than a broad promise of craftsmanship. The house's own explanation makes those production stages visible without turning the shop into a factory-tour destination.
Cleo has sold Irish knitwear and textiles from Kildare Street since Kit Ryan founded it in 1936, run today by the third generation of the Joyce family. The rails hold hand-knits and hand-weaves in undyed wool and linen from small Irish makers.
Frugone 1885 is a Genoa-based cashmere house whose Portofino boutique on Molo Umberto I sells hand-finished knitwear, scarves and accessories. The brand also operates stores in Florence, Genoa and Savignone.
Best for Hand-finished knitwear, scarves and accessories
Milanese accessories and knitwear house founded 1892 by Giuseppe Sartori as a necktie shop near Via Montenapoleone; the Altea trademark was formalized in 1946, known for brushed-wool knitwear made in Umbria and Marche.
Best for Printed shirts, knit polos, scarves; Printed polos, sophisticated
Altea began in 1892 as a necktie shop in Milan, opened by Giuseppe Sartori near what is now Via Montenapoleone. The Altea trademark itself was formally established in 1946. In the 1970s a fourth generation, brothers Michele and Luca Sartori, expanded the line into scarves and other accessories; by the 1990s Altea had grown into a full men's and women's 'total look' brand. It is best known today for colorful brushed-wool knitwear, alongside shirting, soft tailoring and accessories, with most pieces made in Umbria and Marche, Italy's traditional knitwear-producing regions.
Milan sock maker founded in 1927, later relocated to Desenzano del Garda; acquired by the Colombo family's Siam hosiery firm, whose Ambrogio Colombo invented openwork and the smallest baby socks ever made in the 1960s, shifting Gallo from grey basics to bold striped colorwork.
Best for Striped Italian socks and fine hosiery
Gallo was founded in Milan in 1927, producing plain blue and grey cotton socks built for durability rather than style, in keeping with the practical menswear of the period. In the late 1930s production moved to Desenzano del Garda, on Lake Garda, where the company's factory remains today. After the Second World War, the Siam hosiery company, run by the Colombo family in Desenzano, acquired the Gallo brand and consolidated production into a single factory. In the 1960s, Ambrogio Colombo drove a significant shift in the brand's direction, inventing openwork sock techniques and producing what the company describes as the smallest baby socks ever made; around the same period the brand's palette moved away from its original grey basics toward the multicolored stripes, contrasts and geometric patterns now associated with it. Gallo continues to knit on both historic and modern machinery, including Bentley looms, using materials such as Egyptian cotton, merino wool, silk and cashmere across men's, women's and children's sock lines.
Loro Piana has specialized in cashmere, vicuña and extrafine wool since 1924, with material expertise spanning rare Andean vicuña, baby cashmere and fine wool processed through its Italian textile tradition.
Best for Cashmere knits, one-piece collar polos, and the summit of quiet luxury.
The Loro Piana family traded wool in Piedmont from the early nineteenth century; the modern house, seated in Quarona since 1924, became the world's foremost buyer and weaver of superlative fibers — baby cashmere combed from Hircus goat kids, vicuña from the Andes (a species the company helped bring back from near-extinction through conservation agreements), extra-fine merinos secured at auction records. The clothing exists, in a sense, to serve the fiber: unlogo'd knitwear, jackets, and accessories whose entire argument is made by hand-feel. The Open Walk suede shoe and the cashmere sweaters are the recognizable staples of the quiet-luxury wardrobe the house defined decades before the term existed. All of it is made in Italy, within reach of the Quarona mill. Touch before buying elsewhere: Loro Piana is the calibration standard against which softness claims across the industry are honestly measured.
The baby cashmere pieces justify their premium by hand-feel alone; compare one against ordinary cashmere in the store and the fiber hierarchy becomes obvious.
The zigzag knit dynasty — space-dyed knitwear woven in its Varese-province factory since 1953. First zigzag on Missoni FW 1967 via unorthodox raschel-machine use. Sumirago factory built 1969.
Best for Zigzag knits and joyful Italian color.
Ottavio Missoni, an Olympic hurdler who had made knitted tracksuits, and Rosita Jelmini, whose family made shawls, married in 1953 and built their knitwear house in Sumirago, north of Milan, where it remains. Their machines produced what no one else's did: zigzags, flame stitches, and stripes in dozens of colors per garment, turning knitwear from cardigan conservatism into kaleidoscopic fashion. The zigzag became one of the few instantly attributable patterns in clothing — recognizable across a room without a logo. The house stayed a family affair through generations, extending the pattern language into a substantial home collection of blankets, cushions, and towels that many consider the most successful fashion-to-home translation in the industry. Knitwear remains the heart: a Missoni cardigan or scarf carries the entire house in one object, and vintage pieces trade actively because the language has never dated.
Buy the knits a touch generous — the patterns read best with drape — and consider the home line's blankets, which carry the same looms into daily use.
Monza knitwear house founded 1934 by Luigi Fedeli, originally a hat maker; shifted to knitwear postwar under Rodolfo Fedeli and pioneered Italian cashmere knitwear in the 1960s. Now run by the fourth generation, still made in the original Monza factory.
Best for Cashmere polos, knitwear, heritage; Cashmere knit polos
Fedeli was founded in 1934 in Monza by Luigi Fedeli, initially making felt hats at a small workshop on Via Arosio. In the postwar years, under founder's son Rodolfo Fedeli, the company shifted its focus from hats to knitwear, producing cardigans, v-neck sweaters, and roll-neck pullovers through the 1950s and 60s. That decade also brought Fedeli's defining specialization: new machinery allowed the company to work in cashmere, and it became the first Italian company to specialize in cashmere knitwear production. Fedeli remains a family business today, now in its fourth generation of family ownership, with all products still made at the original factory in Monza.
Ecolã is a third-generation Portuguese wool house founded in 1925, making blankets, burel clothing and accessories from local sheep's wool. Its Manteigas production follows the full cycle from shearing and washing to weaving and traditional fulling.
Best for Portuguese wool blankets, burel clothing and accessories
French knitwear house founded in 1927 in Roanne by Claudius Devernois under the brand name Sionreved; still family-run under his granddaughter Severine Brun, garments made in the original Roanne workshops.
Best for Roanne-made jersey knitwear from a French maison since 1927
Devernois was founded in 1927 by Claudius Devernois in the Goutte-Marcellin district of Roanne, France, initially operating under the brand name Sionreved - an anagram of Devernois - with a workshop of just three employees producing men's jacquard knitwear. Five years later the operation moved to larger premises in nearby Le Coteau as production grew and industrialized, and the house shifted its focus to high-end women's knitwear. Roanne is described in French textile histories as a historic center of the French knitwear industry. The company has stayed in the founding family for three generations: Claudius Devernois' granddaughter, Severine Brun, took over the house in 2005 alongside her husband Thierry Brun.
Family knitwear maker founded in 1929 by Peter Harley in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, still operating from its original Queen Street site; known for seamless Shetland and Fair Isle-style jumpers, now run by the third generation.
Best for Seam-free Scottish wool and cashmere knitwear
Harley of Scotland is a Scottish knitwear manufacturer founded in 1929, when Peter Harley bought a former herring yard on Queen Street in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, and set up a hosiery business making hand-framed fisherman's socks and woven blankets for the local fishing industry. Sailing trips took Peter Harley to Orkney, Shetland and the Fair Isles, where he encountered the hand-knit cottage industries and regional patterning of Fair Isle sweaters; by the mid-1930s the company had shifted production toward premium fisherman's ganseys and, over time, toward the Shetland and Fair Isle-style knitwear it is now known for. The company remains headquartered and still produces at its original Queen Street, Peterhead site, now run by the third generation of the Harley family.
Founded as a cotton mill in 1784 by John Smedley and Peter Nightingale, Lea Mills in Derbyshire still spins, knits, and finishes John Smedley garments on its original site. Fine-gauge Sea Island cotton and merino wool polos and pullovers are the house signatures, from a firm the family says is now run by its eighth generation.
Best for Fine-gauge Sea Island cotton and merino polos
Scottish cashmere manufacturer since 1797 — over 225 years of perfecting knitwear. B-Corp certified, whole-garment knitting, and founding member of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance.
French knitwear house rooted in an 1880 Ardeche silk mill; in 1963 Leo Gros developed the synthetic 'Fil Lumiere' thread used for its signature polos, which became especially popular across Asia from the 1990s-2000s.
Best for Knitwear, quality
Montagut traces its roots to 1880, when entrepreneur Adolphe Tinland opened a silk mill in the Auzene valley near Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut in the Ardeche. His descendant Georges Tinland later founded a silk-knitting workshop near Valence, and in 1925 became the first to sell silk stockings under the Montagut name. After the Second World War the company shifted into knitwear, and in 1963 Leo Gros - Tinland's son-in-law - developed a synthetic thread engineered to imitate silk's sheen and drape, which he named Fil Lumiere. Polo shirts knitted from Fil Lumiere became the brand's signature product, popular especially in Asia; by around 2000 Montagut was reportedly the best-known polo-shirt brand in China.
Hawick knitwear house founded in 1815 by Robert Pringle; its designer Otto Weisz created the modern twinset and introduced the geometric Argyle pattern to knitwear in 1934, and the brand held a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II from 1956 until her death in 2022.
Best for Knitwear, Scottish
Pringle of Scotland was founded in 1815 by Robert Pringle in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders, initially producing knitted stockings and undergarments before moving into premium woolen sweaters after 1870. The brand's defining design moment came in 1934, when it appointed the Austrian-born designer Otto Weisz as its first full-time in-house designer. Weisz developed the modern twinset — a fitted sweater paired with a matching cardigan — and introduced the geometric Argyle pattern into knitwear, both of which became closely associated with the Pringle name through the twentieth century. The Argyle motif itself derives from older Scottish tartan and clan patterns rather than being a Pringle invention, but the brand is widely credited with popularizing it as a knitwear print. In 1956 Pringle received a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II, a recognition it held continuously until her death in 2022. With a documented history stretching back more than two centuries, Pringle is counted among the oldest continuously operating luxury fashion houses still trading today, and its knitwear — twinsets and Argyle pieces especially — remains the reference point most associated with the brand's identity.
Danish knitwear house founded in 1931 by Soren Nielsen Skyt in Herning, maker of the 'bobble'-pattern fisherman sweater designed to withstand North Sea and Baltic weather; still knitted in Herning to the original pattern rules.
Best for Fisherman knit polos, wool; Randolf merino polos; Stark fisherman polos
S.N.S. Herning was founded in 1931 by Soren Nielsen Skyt, who had been supporting himself since young adulthood by selling his own knitted garments. In the mid-1920s he learned a bobble-knitting technique that improved a garment's insulating properties, and built his business around a fisherman's sweater engineered from it, meant to protect commercial fishermen from the harsh conditions of the North Sea and Baltic. The bobble pattern, cut, measurements, and finishing are still governed by strict rules tracing back to Skyt's original design, and the sweaters continue to be knitted at the company's factory in Herning, Denmark.
French knitwear house founded in 1889 in the Normandy town of Saint-James near Mont-Saint-Michel bay, grown from Leon Legallais's 1850 wool-spinning mill; its ribbed mariniere was designed for sailors and fishermen.
Best for Navale Breton polos; the original Breton striped shirt
Saint James takes its name from the Normandy town of Saint-James, near Mont-Saint-Michel bay, where the business traces to 1850, when Leon Legallais, the town's mayor, founded a spinning mill called Moulin du Prieur. In 1889 the workshop became the Societe Anonyme des Filatures de Saint-James and produced its first defining garment: a tightly knit wool sweater designed for sailors and fishermen. Saint James has been designated an 'Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant' (Living Heritage Company) by the French state, recognising the brand's continued in-house knitting expertise.
Wool earflap cap invented in 1903 when railroad engineer George 'Stormy' Kromer's wife Ida sewed an earband onto his ball cap; produced by the Kromer Cap Company from 1905, revived in 2001 by Bob Jacquart, and made today in Ironwood, Michigan.
Best for Wool caps
The Stormy Kromer cap traces to 1903, when George 'Stormy' Kromer kept losing his hat to the wind on the train and asked his wife, Ida, to sew an earband onto his ball cap. The couple began making the caps at home, and by 1905 had founded the Kromer Cap Company. George Kromer sold the company in 1965. In 2001, when the Kromer Cap Company planned to stop making the caps, the rights were purchased by Bob Jacquart, who moved production to Ironwood, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The company today is family-owned and operated, still sewing the wool caps in Ironwood.
William Lockie makes knitwear in Hawick, drawing on the town's textile industry. Cashmere is a central material, with the company describing fibre sourced from China and Mongolia before manufacture in Scotland. Its collection can be explored through the brand's published range and retailers.
Best for Scottish-made cashmere knitwear from Hawick
William Lockie has operated in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders, since 1874, when its founder bought manufacturing equipment from his former employer, a local hosiery firm, to start his own knitwear operation. Hawick built its reputation as a center of luxury knitwear in the 19th century after de-hairing and separation techniques made cashmere production viable at scale, and William Lockie's mill sits on the banks of the Slitrig Water. The company has remained under family ownership throughout its history: it is today run by the Thorburn family, direct descendants of founder William Lockie. The mill produces lambswool, cashmere, merino and camel-hair garments, sold both under its own name and as a manufacturing partner for other heritage clothing brands.
⚒ Knitwear & Cashmere · William Lockie describes its cashmere knitwear as manufactured in Hawick / Scotland / using raw cashmere from China and MongoliaORBIS register
Amsterdam textile-innovation studio founded 2015 by designer Borre Akkersdijk and Arnoud Haverlag, producing programmable 3D-knitted fabrics on repurposed circular-knitting machines for clients including Nike, Adidas and BMW.
Best for 3D-knitted polos, innovation; Edition 3D polos; Multicolor 3D polos; Weightmap variable polos
BYBORRE was founded in Amsterdam in 2015 by textile designer Borre Akkersdijk and digital strategist Arnoud Haverlag. Akkersdijk, who studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven, had grown frustrated that he couldn't translate his textile designs directly into fabric, so he began experimenting with circular knitting machines originally built for mattress-cover manufacturing. Haverlag saw the potential to automate and systematize that process so structured, programmable textiles could be produced to order. The resulting studio designs and produces 3D-knitted fabrics with engineered structure, working with brands and manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas, and BMW, and with cycling brand Rapha on a technical-textile collaboration. The company positions itself less as a conventional fashion label than as a material-innovation lab bridging design, engineering, and manufacturing for programmable knit textiles.
Mountain Country designs, knits and manufactures possum merino knitwear on site in Auckland, New Zealand, from a factory shop at 1/113 Vincent Street, Howick. Garments including capes, wraps, scarves, cardigans and jerseys are made from a blend of merino, possum and mulberry silk or pure merino wool.
From a shop in the Bellgården passage of Bryggen, knitwear designer Susan Fosse has produced her own traditional Norwegian sweaters, cardigans and vests for some three decades. Each piece is knitted in 100% Norwegian wool and finished with handmade pewter buttons, made and shipped from Bergen.
Best for Handmade traditional Norwegian wool sweaters
Lanificio Luigi Colombo, an Italian cashmere and noble-fiber mill based in Borgosesia (Valsesia, Piedmont) and founded in the 1960s, spins cashmere, vicuña, guanaco and yangir into fabric supplied to houses including Hermès, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton.
Best for Cashmere, rare fibres, polos; Rare fibre polos
Lanificio Luigi Colombo is a vertically integrated Italian textile mill specializing in cashmere and other rare 'noble' animal fibers — kid cashmere, yangir (wild Central Asian goat), guanaco, vicuña and camelhair alongside standard cashmere. The company is based in Borgosesia, in the Valsesia district of Piedmont at the foot of the Alps, a region with its own long-standing wool and textile manufacturing tradition, geographically close to but distinct from the better-known mill town of Biella. Colombo runs production as a fully integrated process, handling raw fiber selection, spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing within its own plant rather than outsourcing stages to separate specialists — a structure that lets it control the fiber's handling from source material to finished cloth. The mill's dye operations recycle a large share of process water, part of a broader environmental program the company describes. Colombo supplies fabric to a roster of international luxury houses, with the company's materials cited in connection with Hermès, Chanel, Dior, Céline and Louis Vuitton collections, among others. Within the cashmere and noble-fiber trade, mills that work with vicuña are relatively rare, since the fiber can only be shorn from wild or semi-domesticated herds under strict international quotas — a supply constraint that keeps vicuña cloth, whichever mill produces it, among the most expensive textiles made anywhere.
Family knitwear house founded in 1953 in Crevalcore, near Bologna, by Adelmo Collina and Livia Setti; their son Roberto launched the namesake menswear line at Pitti Uomo in the early 1980s, adding womenswear in 1990.
Best for Experimental-gauge knitwear from three generations of Bolognese knit-making
The label traces to 1953, when Adelmo Collina and his wife Livia Setti started a small knitwear workshop, with an attached training school, in Crevalcore, a town north of Bologna. In the years after the Second World War the operation produced sweaters for German and other Northern European markets. In the early 1980s their son Roberto Collina put his own name on a small capsule collection of men's jumpers, presented at the Pitti Uomo trade fair in Florence. A women's collection followed in 1990. The company remains based in Crevalcore, where it now employs more than 50 people.
Zanone, part of Slowear, specialises in premium knitwear using fabrics such as Ice Cotton. Polos, sweaters and cardigans appear simple, making yarn performance and construction the reasons to compare models.
Best for Knitted polos, ice-cotton, innovation; Ice-cotton polos; Ice-cotton polo
Petrusse is a Bordeaux scarf and textile house for printed scarves, stoles, silk, wool, and art-led accessories. At Bordeaux, the range centers on printed silk and wool scarves and stoles from the Bordeaux textile house.
Best for Printed silk and wool scarves and stoles from the Bordeaux textile house
Grown from Peri Drysdale's Christchurch knitwear company Snowy Peak, Untouched World makes merino and possum-blend clothing manufactured in New Zealand. The brand runs its flagship store and café in Christchurch.
Sustainable Danish basics — ethically produced knitwear and basics using llama wool and organic cotton. The antithesis of fast fashion, with pieces designed to last decades.
Best for The llama wool, the ethical production, and the longevity.
Copenhagen fashion house founded 1986 by Mads Norgaard, third generation of a family retail line dating to his grandfather's 1944 Stroget shop. Known for its striped-tee signature; stores in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Berlin.
Best for Playful knitwear
Mads Norgaard - Copenhagen traces its retail lineage to 1944, when Mads Norgaard's grandfather, Matthes Mathias, opened a shop on Stroget, Copenhagen's main pedestrian street. Mads' father, Jorgen, took over the business in 1959 and, with his wife Ellen, turned a struggling fabric retailer into a shop attuned to the youth culture and women's-liberation movements of the 1960s and '70s. Mads Norgaard himself, born 1961, opened his own menswear shop in 1986, initially selling only his own small collection before expanding into womenswear - the founding date the brand now uses officially, making Mads the family's third generation of Copenhagen retailers and designers. The brand's defining visual signature is its striped T-shirt. Today the company operates its own stores in Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Berlin in addition to the original Stroget location.
Copenhagen menswear brand begun in 2004 as a streetwear shop and gallery by Tobia Sloth, Anton Juul and Mikkel Grønnebæk, who launched their own line in 2009. Known for the Aros chino; production spread across Denmark, Italy and Portugal.
Best for Scandinavian outerwear, knitwear, trousers and functional basics
Norse Projects began in Copenhagen in 2004, not as a clothing label but as a retail shop and informal gallery space founded by Tobia Sloth, Anton Juul and Mikkel Grønnebæk. In its early years the shop functioned as a hub for imported streetwear that wasn't otherwise easy to find in Denmark, while also hosting art exhibitions and supporting local artists - closer to a curated multi-brand concept store than a fashion house. The founders launched Norse Projects as its own menswear line in 2009, building a design language around understated Scandinavian tailoring crossed with technical and workwear references rather than logo-driven streetwear. A womenswear line followed for the Fall/Winter 2015 season. Among its recurring pieces, the Aros chino has become one of the label's signatures: offered in a heavyweight broken cotton twill for a classic straight-leg cut, and in a lighter stretch-cotton twill for a slimmer, mid-rise fit, aimed at a wardrobe basic rather than a seasonal statement piece. Production is spread across Denmark, Italy and Portugal, consistent with the brand's positioning as a considered, quality-driven independent label rather than a mass-market chain.
Giuliana Testino is a women's clothing label that presents its work as seasonal collections. The collections include dresses and capes, and knitwear such as cardigans and shawls.
Michell operates as part of the vertically integrated Michell Group, spanning breeding to retail sale of alpaca products, with locations in Arequipa (Juan de la Torre 101, San Lazaro), Lima (Av. Oscar R. Benavides 5849, Callao) and Cusco (Calle Granada 291). It offers more than 16 varieties of alpaca blends and natural fibers in collections including Prestige, Terra, Cloud, Eco and Sock.
The Sweater Shop's Nassau Street store in Dublin sells knitwear alongside woollen gifts for the home. Aran sweaters are a central part of the range, with different garment styles available through the shop and online. The family business began in 1986 and has continued with the next generation involved.
Best for Aran sweaters and woollen gifts in Dublin
The Sweater Shop opened in 1986 and operates as a family-run business at 30 Nassau Street, Dublin 2, with extended online operations. Owned by Paul and Laura, the shop specializes in authentic Aran sweaters, fisherman knits, and traditional Irish textiles for men, women, and children. The business emphasizes its Irish heritage with the tagline "100% Irish — 40 Years in Business" and has accumulated over 4,800 customer reviews. The company offers a generous four-month return policy and maintains physical shop hours Monday-Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday-Sunday 11:00-18:00. The firm commits to sustainability practices by prioritizing recycled or natural fibers and non-toxic natural dye processes in its inventory.
Knit Shop is a Scottish knitwear venture based in Dundee, a city built on jute and textiles that once employed tens of thousands across its spinning and weaving mills. The business makes and sells knitted goods, placing its work within that continuing Dundee textile tradition.
Best for Dundee-made knitwear rooted in the city's textile heritage
Craft Concept's Instagram bio reads "Fabric heaven, but make it addictive," listing DIY, fashion, upholstery and decor, and is based in Durban. Its page highlights cover dress fabric, wool and needles, trims and motifs, buttons, and upholstery jobs.
Belinda Robertson built her name as an Edinburgh cashmere designer, producing knitwear and loungewear in traceable yarns alongside sheepskin gilets and coats. Collections run from classic sweaters to reversible Toscana shearling pieces made in the UK.
Best for Traceable cashmere knitwear, loungewear, and reversible Toscana shearling from an Edinburgh designer
The Edinburgh Woollen Mill sells knitwear, tartan goods, blankets and Scottish-themed gifts at accessible prices. Its High Street branch serves visitors seeking practical woollens rather than specialist designer fashion.
Best for Tartan, knitwear, blankets, and souvenirs at reasonable prices
Cashmere knitwear house founded in Florence in 1972 by brothers Alfredo and Giacomo Canessa, among the first Italian labels to specialize exclusively in cashmere. Production moved to Campi Bisenzio in the province of Florence, Tuscany, in 1973; became Malo Spa in 1980.
Best for Heirloom Tuscan cashmere.
Malo was founded in Florence in 1972 by brothers Alfredo and Giacomo Canessa at a time when Scottish mills dominated the global cashmere knitwear market. The brothers wagered that high-quality cashmere could be produced in Italy rather than only sourced from Scotland, becoming one of the first Italian houses to work exclusively in cashmere. Production relocated in 1973 to Campi Bisenzio, a town in the province of Florence, Tuscany, where the company's manufacturing has remained centered since. Malo expanded through the 1970s and 80s, becoming Malo Spa in 1980 and opening a showroom in Milan.
This shop knits British-wool sweaters on antique Swiss Dubied looms and stocks kilts, tartan and clan goods alongside work from Canadian artisans. It runs two Halifax locations, on Granville Street and at Pier 20, plus a Charlottetown store.
Falla Finland sells women's clothing including dresses, jackets, trousers, cardigans, skirts, knitwear and nightwear, with an autumn collection featuring pieces such as the ELVIRA dress and IMMA jacket.
Set at Salamanca Place in Battery Point, this owner-operated shop stocks fine wool in every form: finished knitwear, felted pieces and yarn for hand knitters, much of it dyed or blended in-house. Staff double as fibre-craft teachers, running classes alongside a shop floor that also carries work by independent Tasmanian fibre artisans.
Best for Merino and Tasmanian wool knitwear and yarn
Viviers Studio, founded in Johannesburg in 2019 by Lezanne Viviers, makes avant-garde, made-to-order wearable-art garments in limited editions using materials such as boiled wool, described by Vogue Italia as "precious fabrics richly decorated with designs, beads." Collections are organized by seasonal themes such as "Needle Point" and "Scarab," and the studio has been covered by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Best for Avant-garde made-to-order wearable art fashion
Felt and Yarn is a women-led workshop employing roughly 500 artisans across Nepal, felting pure New Zealand wool into balls, garlands, and home décor under ISO, GoodWeave, and Sedex certification. The Kathmandu-based operation says its supply chain supports more than 10,000 families.
Prasid Cashmere has run its Tara Marg showroom since 1999, working exclusively with certified Chyangra Pashmina shorn from Himalayan mountain goats. Weavers hand-finish each shawl and wrap on the premises, a process visible from the shop floor.
Alpaca 111 traces back to 1986, when it began as Incalpaca in Arequipa before rebranding under Grupo Inca; its Lima outpost sits inside the Jockey Plaza shopping center. The range spans alpaca sweaters, wraps, gloves and homeware made for everyday wear and for gifting.
Fringe Mod is a Peruvian fashion retailer selling sweaters, cardigans, ponchos, tops, pants, skirts, dresses and tunics across seasonal collections such as Spring Summer 26 and Fall Winter 25.
Kero Design is a Peruvian knitwear label that works with alpaca. Its site describes its work as design rooted in tradition and created with social responsibility at its core.
The Wool Shop stocks double-knit, aran, and chunky wools alongside knitting notions from a storefront in Llandudno, shipping UK-wide through its own online shop. It operates as a working yarn shop rather than a tourist-facing gift store, posting practical tips like stitch-counting for customers mid-project.
East London label founded in Hackney in 2011 by designer Sunny Williams, a former tailor; built its reputation on the knitted 'Hockney' dress with David Hockney-inspired swirl prints, now stocked at Liberty and Selfridges.
Best for Hackney's slow-drop knitwear, led by the viral Hockney knit dress
House of Sunny started in 2011: designer Sunny Williams, who had previously worked as a tailor, began the label from a studio flat off Kingsland Road in Hackney, East London. Over roughly a decade it grew into a name carried by around 40 wholesale accounts including Liberty and Selfridges, with celebrity wearers such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa. The brand's signature product is the 'Hockney' dress - a fitted knitted slip or midi dress carrying abstract swirl patterns inspired by David Hockney's artwork. House of Sunny describes itself as a slow-fashion operation, releasing two seasonal collections a year in limited runs.
Percival makes contemporary menswear in small runs, balancing knitwear, shirting and outerwear with playful embroidery. Its collaborations and seasonal motifs add character without turning the whole wardrobe into novelty clothing.
Founded in 2002 by Christopher LaPolice and Rea Laccone as a Los Angeles cashmere-sweater label; opened its first retail store on Robertson Boulevard in 2008, added menswear in 2007, and listed on the NYSE in 2013.
Best for Effortless luxury
Vince was founded in 2002 by Christopher LaPolice and Rea Laccone, who set up a design atelier in Los Angeles built around cashmere sweaters intended as understated, everyday luxury staples rather than statement pieces. The cashmere line proved successful quickly, and the brand expanded into denim for both men and women. Vince introduced a dedicated menswear collection in the fall of 2007, and in spring 2008 opened its first freestanding retail store, on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, translating a wholesale label into a store-based brand. The company grew enough over the following years to file for an initial public offering with the SEC in July 2013, seeking up to $200 million; it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker VNCE on 22 November 2013. Ownership has since changed hands: in 2023, Authentic Brands Group acquired Vince's intellectual property in a deal valued at $76.5 million, folding the label into its broader portfolio of licensed fashion brands while Vince continued operating its stores and product lines under the same name.
Cocol sells traditional Spanish handcrafts in Madrid, including handmade fans from Valencia, pottery from Toledo, ceramics, basketry, textiles and wool accessories. The owners travel to workshops around Spain to select the pieces themselves, and the shop is at Costanilla de San Andrés 18, Madrid.
Ecoalf makes outerwear, knitwear and casual clothing from recycled and lower-impact materials. Product-level composition matters because the brand uses several fibre streams, from recovered nylon to recycled polyester and wool blends.
British menswear brand founded by Liam Gallagher in 2009, built around mod-inspired parkas, paisley, knitwear and shirting; the label continues today under later ownership.
Best for Mod style, British; Paisley mod prints; Quilted jacket
Doriani specialises in fine-gauge knitwear, cashmere and refined polo shirts from Milan. Fibre, ply and knitting density provide the meaningful differences across pieces that otherwise appear deliberately understated.
Best for Cashmere, polo shirts, knitwear; Cashmere polos, Milan
Italian hosiery manufacturer founded 1947 near Milan by Giuseppe Gatti; renamed Marcoliani in the 1980s by his children in honor of a family friend, it knits Pima cotton, merino and cashmere socks, still made in Italy.
Best for Luxury socks, craftsmanship
Marcoliani's story begins not with socks but with silkworms: in 1947, Giuseppe Gatti started breeding them in his attic in the Brianza district near Milan, selling the cocoons to local silk mills before a family connection led him into hosiery. In the 1980s his children took over and renamed the company Marcoliani, after 'Marculian,' the dialect nickname of the friend who had helped their father into the trade. Production has stayed rooted in Paina di Giussano, in Brianza. The company works with premium Italian yarns - Pima cotton, merino wool, cashmere, modal, and linen-cotton blends - and its socks are sold in more than 500 stores worldwide while remaining Made in Italy.
Boutique on Via Giuseppe Manno in Cagliari carrying Milan-based designer Martino Midali's knitwear and jersey collections; Midali, born in Lodi province in 1952, opened his first Milan store in Brera in the late 1970s.
Best for Knitwear, Womenswear
Martino Midali was born in the province of Lodi in 1952 and moved to Milan as a young man, working his way into the fashion industry before launching his own label in the late 1970s. He built a reputation as a knitwear specialist who treated jersey as a structural material rather than an accessory fabric, using it to build jackets, skirts and trousers with elasticated waists instead of tailored construction, and experimenting with 'one-dress' garments cut and assembled without visible seams. His first Milan shop opened in the Brera district, followed shortly after by a second on Corso di Porta Ticinese; the label's headquarters later settled at Via Fratelli Bronzetti in Milan. The Cagliari boutique, at Via Giuseppe Manno 47, is one of the brand's standalone retail points outside Milan, confirmed through the brand's own store locator and its dedicated Cagliari social media pages, and carries the label's ready-to-wear and knitwear collections rather than operating as a separate design studio.
Milanese menswear label founded by designer Paolo Pecora (b. 1961), who launched a women's line in 1984 before adding menswear in 1990. Built around knitwear — 'everything starts from the thread' is the family motto — positioned as accessible, relaxed tailoring.
Best for Contemporary knitwear
Paolo Pecora Milano was founded by designer Paolo Pecora, born in 1961, who began his career as a buyer for a group of Milanese stores before launching his own label. He presented a women's collection in 1984, and strong early sales allowed the brand to expand quickly; in 1990 Pecora launched the label's first menswear collection, extending the brand toward a broader, multi-generational customer base. The house built its identity specifically around knitwear, framing its approach with the family motto "everything starts from the thread," and has positioned itself as a specialist in tactile, well-constructed knits rather than a general tailoring house. Pecora has described the brand's style as a combination of Italian sartorial culture reworked in a contemporary way, aiming for an idea of accessible, relaxed luxury that sits between formal and leisure dressing rather than committing fully to either. The label expanded its product range over time, launching a line of fragrances and home fragrance products in 2015, and later adding kidswear to the collection. In December 2024, Italian trade press reported that the womenswear license for Paolo Pecora Milano was taken on by the company Modaeffe, described by the brand's leadership as a strategic step in its expansion plans, indicating the house continues to grow its licensing structure alongside its core menswear and knitwear business built around the Pecora family's original focus on thread and construction.
Since 1968, Manos del Uruguay has organized rural artisan cooperatives producing hand-dyed and hand-knitted wool goods. The fair-trade organization is owned by the women who make its yarns and knitwear, linking craft purchases directly to the cooperative network.
Best for Hand-knits from Uruguayan artisan cooperatives
Hamaji Studio, made ethically in Kenya with input from Indian artisans, sells dresses, tops, coats and knitwear using natural fibres, botanical dyes, hand embroidery and up-cycled vintage textiles, with some garments made to order to reduce wastage. Prices range from $119 to $980, with worldwide DHL Express delivery.
A family-owned business in Stoke, Nelson, Nelson Merino designs and produces New Zealand-made merino knitwear and accessories for men, women and children. Garments are sold through its online store and at the Nelson and Motueka weekend markets.
A New York label cut in Peruvian pima: polos and knitwear under the skull-rabbit mark.
Best for Pima-cotton polos and knitwear carrying the skull-rabbit emblem
Psycho Bunny grew from its skull-and-crossbones rabbit emblem into a full menswear and childrenswear business whose signature remains the brightly coloured polo. The house’s current supply-chain reporting says its Pima cotton is sourced primarily from Peru and that most of its signature cotton polos and shirts are manufactured there, with third-party social-compliance audits across the supplier network. That production story gives the familiar logo product a more useful point of comparison: fabric, colour and construction matter as much as the irreverent mark.
Knitwear label founded by Siri Johansen, a former Burberry and Kenzo designer, that knits deadstock fashion-industry yarn into one-off, numbered sweaters; runs a small store in Oslo alongside its online shop.
Best for One-off sweaters
Waste Yarn Project is a knitwear label built around surplus yarn discarded by the fashion industry - stock too limited for a full production run, no longer matching a season's palette, or otherwise judged uneconomical to reuse. According to trade coverage, the brand was founded by Siri Johansen, a designer with roughly a decade of industry experience including work with Burberry and Kenzo; the label originated in Paris before Johansen opened a small store in Oslo. Each garment is knitted from whatever combination of leftover yarns and colors happens to be available at the time, so no two pieces are identical, and every finished garment is numbered to reflect that individuality. The approach positions the brand within circular-fashion manufacturing, converting a byproduct that would otherwise go to landfill into a finished product.
Paris ready-to-wear label founded 2004 by Frederic Krief, built around a cashmere sweater with two angel wings on the back; headquartered at 39 Avenue Victor Hugo, with around 58 boutiques across France.
Best for A cashmere-led wardrobe with 16th-arrondissement Paris polish
Berenice was created in 2004 by Frederic Krief and quickly established itself in French women's ready-to-wear. The brand's identity centers on a cashmere sweater decorated with two angel wings on the back, reissued each season in different finishes. Built on the popularity of that piece, Berenice's collections expanded into a full wardrobe, including shoes, small leather goods, bags, and scarves. The company is based in Paris at 39 Avenue Victor Hugo and operates roughly 58 boutiques across France.
Argyle hosiery in the Scottish diamond, from the long-running German house. At Printemps.
Best for Scottish-diamond argyle hosiery from a historic German-run brand
Burlington's sock business traces back to Burlington Industries, a textile manufacturer founded in 1923 in Burlington, North Carolina. The brand's defining product, however, is a German invention: the first socks carrying its now-signature Scottish argyle diamond pattern were produced in 1975 in Schopfheim, Baden-Württemberg, turning what began as an American textile name into a European hosiery label built almost entirely around one motif. In 2008, FALKE KGaA, the German hosiery and knitwear house founded in 1895 by Franz Falke-Rohen and still family-run today from its headquarters in Schmallenberg, acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute Burlington-branded clothing, leather goods and accessories across Europe and other non-European markets, folding Burlington in as a distinct label within the wider Falke Group. For decades Burlington existed almost exclusively as a wholesale and multi-brand-retail name, sold through department stores and specialist hosiers rather than its own shops. That changed in January 2019, when the brand opened its first-ever standalone store, a 92-square-meter space at Schadowstraße 11 in Düsseldorf's Schadow-Arkaden, finished in raw walls and white surfaces built as a minimalist backdrop for the argyle pattern's color. It remains, as far as documented here, the brand's only company-operated physical retail location.
Started in 2000 by sisters Katia and Vanessa Sanchez, who opened a workshop-boutique at 5 rue Keller in Paris selling soft printed knitwear; Vanessa now leads the label after Katia's 2019 retirement, with 2025 environmental impact scores per garment.
Best for Soft knitwear with golden-thread details from the sisters behind this Parisian label
Des Petits Hauts was founded in 2000 by sisters Katia and Vanessa Sanchez, who set out to make soft, easy-to-wear tops carrying original prints -- the literal "little tops" the brand takes its name from. From the start, the sisters opened a combined workshop and boutique at 5 rue Keller in Paris, in the 11th arrondissement, where the earliest pieces were designed and sold. What began as a small line of knitwear grew over two decades into a wider fashion house recognized for pastel-toned knitwear, delicate prints and playful accessories, built around a distinctly Parisian, feminine aesthetic. Katia Sanchez stepped back from the company in 2019, leaving Vanessa Sanchez to continue as the label's creative lead and to preserve its founding identity of poetic prints, soft textures and joyful color palettes. The brand has more recently moved toward publishing sustainability data alongside its collections: in 2025, Des Petits Hauts became one of the first French fashion brands to publish environmental impact scores for individual garments, working with the impact-measurement company Fairly Made, alongside its continued emphasis on natural fibers.
Paris cashmere house founded 1984 by former IT executive Éric Bompard after a trip to Asia introduced him to cashmere weaving. Sources fiber from capra hircus goats grazed above 3,000m on Mongolia's plateau; flagship at 31 rue du Bac.
Best for Cashmere, premium
Éric Bompard was a technology-industry executive before he traveled to Asia and encountered the harvesting and weaving of cashmere firsthand. He founded his eponymous knitwear brand in 1984, opening its first boutique in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and undercut pricing that had until then been set largely by long-established Scottish cashmere houses. Rather than buying finished yarn on the open market, Bompard pushed to control more of the supply chain himself, working with capra hircus goats raised at altitudes above 3,000 meters on the Mongolian plateau, including the Gobi Desert region of Inner Mongolia, to source the fine undercoat fiber combed out each spring. He signed an exclusive supply arrangement with the Chinese cashmere processor Erdos, which later became an investor in the company. The brand today operates a boutique at 31 rue du Bac in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on a street already associated with the Bon Marché department store and higher-end small retail, and has expanded into a network of French and international boutiques while still emphasizing traceable Mongolian fiber and non-dyed yarn options as part of its identity.
Paris cashmere brand democratizing luxury — fine fibers from Inner Mongolia woven into seasonal sweaters and basics at accessible prices.
Best for Sustainable basics
From Future is a contemporary cashmere brand founded in 2018 by Philippe de Hesdin, co-founder of the fashion house Kookaï, alongside his children Pauline (formerly of Maje) and Thomas. The brand's mission is to democratize luxury cashmere by sourcing directly from the same premium weavers that supply leading luxury houses while eliminating intermediaries and producing in large volume. Cashmere is sourced from Inner Mongolia farms, ensuring supply-chain transparency. The design ethos blends modernist sensibility with seasonal storytelling, offering pieces from basic essentials to more sophisticated sweaters, graphic designs, two-tone colorwork, and nautical-inspired styles. Prices range from €59 to €129, positioning the brand as genuinely accessible luxury. The flagship store opened in August 2018 on Rue de Rennes in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Additional locations include the 16th arrondissement and a prominent shop in Le Marais. The brand remains committed to sustainable practices and ethical production.
Kookaï is a womenswear brand established in Paris in 1983, with an early focus on colourful knitwear. Its boutiques and online shop now offer dresses and separates as well as a selection of jackets and coats. Cotton basics form another part of the collection, giving shoppers options for building an outfit around simpler pieces.
Best for Women's knitwear, dresses and cotton wardrobe basics
Kookai is a women's fashion label founded in 1983 in Paris's Sentier garment district by Jean-Lou Tepper, Jacques Nataf and Philippe de Hesdin, built around accessible, trend-driven wardrobe pieces. The brand expanded internationally early, launching in Australia in 1992 through licensees Robert Cromb and Danielle Vagner. In 1996 Kookai joined the French retail group Vivarte. In 2017, Cromb and Vagner acquired the European Kookai operation from Vivarte, unifying the brand's Australian and European businesses under single ownership. Kookai has weathered financial difficulty in France, including a period in receivership, but continues to trade there. Today the label operates more than 200 stores across Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Kujten is a contemporary knitwear house based in Paris and dedicated to sourcing pristine cashmere from the highlands of Mongolia. The brand advances a deliberate philosophy of cashmere democratization—making high-end fiber accessible without compromising quality or design integrity.
Best for Cashmere, colorful
Kujten is a contemporary knitwear house based in Paris and dedicated to sourcing pristine cashmere from the highlands of Mongolia. The brand advances a deliberate philosophy of cashmere democratization—making high-end fiber accessible without compromising quality or design integrity. Signature offerings feature bold color palettes and deliberately oversized silhouettes that challenge conventional luxury knitwear's restraint. The label's approach to scale ranges from 2-thread lightweight sweaters to 10-thread chunky designs, each crafted to individual specifications. Designs are refined in Paris and manufactured in Mongolia, leveraging the region's traditional fiber expertise. Kujten's color palette extends across dozens of shades—the brand offers cashmere jumpers available in approximately 25 colors and scarves in more than 20 hues—positioning vibrant color choice as central to contemporary luxury rather than as novelty or frivolity.
La Petite Étoile offers accessible French womenswear through dresses, blouses, jackets, knitwear and prints. The range favours coordinated, feminine outfits, making it easy to build a complete look across categories.
Best for French dresses, blouses, and printed jackets with Parisian feminine style
Brittany 1922, Guidel production — patrimoine marinières and coastal knits, Enterprise of Living Heritage label.
Best for Marinières and kabig coats knitted in Guidel, Brittany since 1936
Le Minor is a French knitwear manufacturer established in 1922 in Guidel, Brittany, holding the prestigious 'Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant' (Living Heritage Business) certification recognizing excellence in traditional craftsmanship. The company manufactures 100% of its products in Brittany and specializes in classic maritime-inspired clothing. Le Minor is particularly known for marinières—striped knit shirts representing traditional French naval heritage—and related garments including naval officer clothing and kabig coats. The brand positions itself as guardian of Occitan maritime textile traditions, offering customers access to century-old manufacturing techniques while maintaining contemporary quality. Le Minor's collections extend to both men's and women's clothing anchored in this nautical heritage. The Living Heritage Business designation reflects the company's sustained commitment to preservation of traditional craftsmanship in the contemporary marketplace.
Lorena Antoniazzi makes fine cashmere knitwear and coordinated separates in Umbria, with traceability built into selected products. The Galeries Lafayette counter lets shoppers compare gauge, hand feel and fit.
Best for Traceable Umbrian cashmere knitwear with sartorial precision
Lucien Pellat-Finet, born in Nice and trained as a freelance stylist for Thierry Mugler and Chanel, founded his eponymous label in 1994 at age 49, establishing a Parisian cult brand built on subversive luxury knitwear.
Best for Graphic playful cashmere and luxury knitwear
Lucien Pellat-Finet, born in Nice and trained as a freelance stylist for Thierry Mugler and Chanel, founded his eponymous label in 1994 at age 49, establishing a Parisian cult brand built on subversive luxury knitwear. The label's signature offering—extremely high-quality cashmere sweaters embellished with intarsia symbols including marijuana leaves, peace signs, and especially skulls occasionally set with crystals—challenged prevailing notions that cashmere must be conservative and traditional. Pellat-Finet contracted intarsia knitters from Edinburgh, known globally for premium cashmere production, to execute designs that merged technical mastery with provocative visual language. His pieces consistently commanded prices exceeding $2,000, demonstrating that luxury fiber could express irreverence alongside exclusivity. Pellat-Finet died on February 26, 2024, at age 78. The label was acquired in 2020 by Thierry Gillier, creative director and CEO of Zadig & Voltaire, who renamed it Pellat-Finet and continues producing high-end carded cashmere sweaters.
French knitwear brand founded in 2016 by Thibault Negra, based in Bordeaux, producing t-shirts, henleys and sweats entirely in France at a Dordogne workshop dating to 1949, using GOTS-certified organic cotton on vintage 1950s looms.
Best for French-made tees, henleys, and sweats — everyday knit basics.
Maison Cornichon is a French menswear-basics brand founded by Thibault Negra, based in Bordeaux, producing t-shirts since 2016. Its manufacturing is anchored at a production workshop in southwestern France, in the Dordogne, that the brand traces back to 1949. Garments are made using traditional looms dating from the 1950s, a slower, more labor-intensive process the brand says produces a thicker, sturdier knit than typical mass-market t-shirt production. All fabric is GOTS-certified organic cotton, and production stays entirely within France. It has drawn attention from French menswear press and stockists including Beams' mail-order arm in Japan.
Pyrenees-rooted knitwear label founded in 2017 by Yanis Choudar to revive the region's Pyrenean wool trade, named for the izard mountain goat; sweaters and accessories are spun, woven and knitted by craftspeople based near the Pyrenees.
Best for Pyrenees wool sweaters, socks, and mountain-inspired knitwear.
Maison Izard was founded in 2017 by Yanis Choudar, who set out to revive a declining regional industry: the shearing, spinning and weaving of wool from sheep raised in the French Pyrenees. The brand takes its name from the izard, a wild goat-like animal native to the Pyrenean mountains, tying the label's identity directly to the region its wool comes from rather than to a person or place name.
The business changed hands in 2019, taken over by a new owner originally from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees with a prior background in marketing and communications, who continued the founding mission of keeping production close to source. Maison Izard's sweaters, coats and accessories are made through a supply chain - collecting the raw wool, then spinning, weaving and knitting it into finished pieces - kept as close to the Pyrenees as possible, rather than sending raw material abroad for processing and reimporting finished goods, a common practice in European wool that Maison Izard positions itself against. The brand holds the France Terre Textile label, a regional-origin certification for French textile production, which requires a defined share of the manufacturing chain to take place within a specific French textile region.
Socks are offered in true shoe-linked sizes rather than a single broad fit. Since 2019, the shop has also arranged custom pairs, allowing clients to choose dimensions and design beyond the stocked makers.
Best for Gammarelli's papal-hosiery socks from Rome, sold with sock-scholar devotion in Paris
Molli specialises in fine-gauge knitwear, including polos, dresses, cardigans and soft coordinated sets. Subtle stitches, weight and colour are the main differentiators, making close inspection more useful than logo recognition.
Best for Fine-gauge knits, polos, and cardigans from this French knitwear house
Founded in 1968 when Sonia Rykiel opened her first Left Bank knitwear boutique in Paris. The original company was liquidated in 2019 and its Paris stores closed; the brand has continued under new ownership, with G-III Apparel Group since 2021.
Best for Knitwear, Parisian
Sonia Rykiel opened her first boutique on the Left Bank in Paris in May 1968, timed, by coincidence, to the same month as the student uprisings that shook the city. She sold knitwear that broke deliberately from the era's structured tailoring: garments with seams left visible on the outside, hems left unfinished, and slogans knitted directly into sweaters. Her 'Poor Boy' sweater became the brand's breakout design, worn publicly by Brigitte Bardot and Sylvie Vartan, and Audrey Hepburn reportedly visited the shop herself and bought several. The label grew into a full ready-to-wear house that earned Rykiel the nickname 'Queen of Knits.' That original independent company did not survive intact: after years of falling revenue under owner First Heritage Brands, the Paris Commercial Court ordered Sonia Rykiel into liquidation in July 2019, closing its seven remaining stores in France and Monaco and laying off 135 employees when no buyer emerged for the operating business. The brand's intellectual property and archives were subsequently sold; Showroomprivé co-founders Eric and Michael Dayan initially acquired the label, and it has been under G-III Apparel Group's ownership since 2021, continuing as a licensed ready-to-wear brand distributed through department and specialty stores rather than the founder-run independent house it began as.
Paris-founded knitwear label started in 2019 by Rémi de Laquintane and Tom Lehman, making largely recycled-cashmere, unisex sweaters worked by artisans in Italy; sold direct-to-consumer without seasonal collections.
Best for Colorful Paris knitwear — sweaters and cardigans with a made-to-order feel
Tricot was founded in Paris in 2019 by photographer and designer Rémi de Laquintane together with Tom Lehman, out of a stated aim to produce a single, exceptional cashmere sweater rather than a broad seasonal range. The pieces are made largely from recycled cashmere and organic wool, worked by artisans in Italy -- Venetian workshops, specifically -- into a relaxed, unisex silhouette. The brand operates direct-to-consumer, without intermediaries, releasing new pieces every couple of months rather than following traditional seasonal collections or running sales. Stated design references include Éric Rohmer's new-wave film 'La Collectionneuse,' 1980s United Colors of Benetton advertising, traditional Breton fishing garments, and Moroccan rugs, all folded into a deliberately quiet, understated approach to knitwear.
A collective urban-design shop combining several Portuguese design micro-brands. The store brings together design objects, wool, cork, maritime goods and tea.
Best for Portuguese design objects, wool, cork, maritime goods, and tea from multiple micro-brands
Porto menswear label founded in 2011 by José Miguel de Abreu and André Bastos Teixeira, reworking Portuguese maritime staples — Nazaré fishermen's shirts, Alentejo capotes, Serra da Estrela wool jumpers — manufactured entirely in Portugal.
Best for Fisherman knits
La Paz began in Porto in 2011, started by José Miguel de Abreu and André Bastos Teixeira as a menswear label rooted in Portugal's Atlantic coastline. Rather than inventing a house aesthetic from scratch, the pair spent time visiting old regional factories and combing local archives for garments tied to specific corners of the country: the striped fishing shirts worn along the coast at Nazaré, the heavy wool capote cloak of the Alentejo plains, and the chunky knitwear produced in the mountain village workshops of Serra da Estrela. Those research trips shaped the brand's approach — reissuing or reinterpreting traditional Portuguese workwear pieces for a contemporary wardrobe, rather than following seasonal fashion cycles. Comfort, durability and functionality sit at the center of the label's design brief, with an emphasis on materials suited to a maritime climate: waxed cottons, technical wools and heavyweight knits. All of La Paz's collections are manufactured in Portugal, keeping production tied to the same regional ateliers and mills that originally inspired the brand's founders. Since its founding, the label has been covered by outlets including Monocle for its approach to reviving Portuguese textile heritage through a modern menswear lens, positioning La Paz within a wider generation of Portuguese labels working directly with the country's surviving textile factories.
The knitters' own co-operative — every lopapeysa here is hand-knitted in Iceland from Icelandic wool by a named member, no factory imitations. The genuine article, bought from the hands that made it.
Best for Real lopapeysur knitted by Icelandic hands
The Handknitting Association of Iceland has sold hand-knitted Icelandic-wool garments since 1977. Its own range includes lopapeysa sweaters and Léttlopi, Plötulopi, Álafosslopi and Kemba yarns. Its Reykjavík shops are at Skólavörðustígur 19 and Borgartún 31; check the association’s own site for current opening days.
It is best known for Qualitative wool and hand-made woollen garments; knitting and crochet traditions; self-made woollen clothing that is stylish and visually attractive; craft store in Old Riga.
Best for Qualitative wool and hand-made woollen garments
Linen Natural, with a workshop at Mālu iela 28 in Riga, makes linen and wool clothing designed in Latvia including linen ruffle dresses, headscarves and ruffled linen curtains.
Rome outpost of United Colors of Benetton, the Italian knitwear brand founded in 1965 by the Benetton siblings near Treviso; this large store sits on Piazza di Spagna at the foot of the Spanish Steps.
Best for Color-block knits.
This Piazza di Spagna location is a retail store of United Colors of Benetton, the Italian fashion group founded in 1965 by siblings Luciano, Giuliana, Carlo and Gilberto Benetton. Luciano had begun selling sweaters knitted at home by Giuliana to shops around Treviso as early as 1955; when Carlo and Gilberto joined in 1965, the family opened its first factory in Ponzano Veneto, where the group's headquarters remains today. The 'United Colors of Benetton' name was adopted in 1989. This shop occupies a large storefront at Piazza di Spagna 67-69, at the foot of the Spanish Steps in central Rome.
Italian knitwear label founded by Carlo Stefanel, who built a Treviso-region spinning/knitting business from 1947 into the Stefanel brand launched in the 1970s, with franchise retail from 1979.
Best for Easy Italian knits.
Stefanel is an Italian fashion label rooted in the Veneto region's textile industry. Carlo Stefanel, born in 1925 in Ponte di Piave, began working in his aunt's spinning mill in nearby Oderzo and started selling wool and fabric at local markets from 1947. In 1959 he bought four knitting machines and founded Maglifico Piave, initially supplying wholesalers across Italy and Europe from the Treviso area - the same region that later produced Benetton and Diesel. His son Giuseppe, born in 1952, joined at the end of the 1960s, taking charge of yarn and textile production. Through the 1970s the company began designing and selling clothing directly under the Stefanel name, and in 1979 developed its own retail-store concept and began franchising.
Fundación Artesanías de Chile is a nonprofit that sources handicrafts directly from artisans across the country and sells them through its shops under a fair-trade model. Its range spans Mapuche silver and textiles, lapis lazuli, pottery, basketry and wool.
Best for Authentic Chilean crafts, lapis lazuli, Mapuche textiles and silver
CCIC Cottage Emporium, an initiative of the Government of India, sells Kashmiri pashmina shawls and stoles made from Chanthangi goat cashmere fiber, alongside paper mache handicrafts, brass crafts, woolen garments and walnut wood carving, made through cottage industries known as Kutir Udyog.
Best for Government-sourced Kashmiri pashmina and papier-mache
Kashmir Loom, founded by Jenny Housego and Asaf Ali, has spent over 25 years reviving Kani weave and Sozni embroidery traditions from the Kashmir valley into contemporary pashmina shawls, stoles, and clothing. The brand sells from its Srinagar and Delhi stores as well as its international online shop.
Best for Kani weave and Sozni-embroidered pashmina shawls, stoles
Kepra is an 81-year-old registered manufacturer of GI-certified Kashmiri Pashmina shawls based in Srinagar, selected as the official gifting partner for the G20 Summit in Srinagar and the 2025 Maritime Leaders Conclave. The brand sells hand-embroidered Kani, Sozni, and jaldaar pashmina shawls through its online shop.
Pure Kashmir, established in 2013, sources handwoven pashmina and cashmere shawls direct from artisans in Srinagar, made from Changthangi goat fibers combed at 14,000 feet on the Changthang plateau. Its techniques include kani weaving with coded-manuscript patterns taking 12 to 18 months, sozni embroidery with a single fine needle, and jali and jamawar embroidery.
Stockholm knitwear-led womenswear founded by three sisters in honour of their seamstress grandmother Dagmar — sculptural knits and responsible Scandinavian tailoring.
Best for Sculptural knitwear and quiet Swedish tailoring.
Stockholm legwear since 2013—recycled yarn and natural fibres elevate hosiery from necessity to considered wardrobe essential with zero waste aims.
Best for Stockholm's sustainable recycled tights, closing the nylon loop
Swedish Stockings is a Stockholm-based premium hosiery brand founded in 2013 by Nadja Forsberg and Linn Frisinger, specializing in tights, socks, and knee-highs crafted from sustainable materials. The brand positions legwear as a design category worthy of aesthetic attention and environmental responsibility, moving away from treating hosiery as disposable basics. Their collections feature recycled yarn and natural fibres, manufactured in certified sustainable facilities using eco-friendly dyes and solar power. The product range spans multiple styles—sheer, opaque, lace, patterned, and support wear—with options in natural and recycled materials. Swedish Stockings operates internationally with showrooms and direct shipping across Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania, reflecting a commitment to accessible sustainable practice at scale. The brand's emphasis on timeless design and quality addresses the business model behind textile waste while maintaining technical and aesthetic standards expected of contemporary legwear.
Veta designs and sells Estonian-made knitwear, linen homeware, and wool accessories through its online shop, run by Calisto Varahaldur OU out of Tallinn, with dedicated men's, women's, and home collections. The brand also operates physical stores across Estonia and offers franchising for its retail concept.
Japanese menswear label launched in 2009 by designer Shunsuke Ishikawa (who started the related MARKA line in 2003) from Nakameguro, Tokyo; sources traceable organic cotton, wool and hemp globally and has natural fabrics woven and sewn in Japan.
Best for Ivy style, refined casual
Markaware is the higher-end menswear label of Existence Co., Ltd., a Tokyo company based in the Nakameguro neighborhood that also runs the more casual sister label MARKA and the knitwear line Text. Designer Shunsuke Ishikawa started the men's MARKA line in 2003, and Markaware followed in 2009. The brand describes its approach as 'Farm to Closet': Ishikawa travels directly to farms and mills to source traceable natural materials - organic cotton, organic wool, alpaca and hemp - which are then spun, woven and sewn using Japan's textile manufacturing expertise. Since 2018 the brand has used only organic or sustainably grown cotton across its collections.
Martina Vidal has made Burano lace for four generations, now paired with luxury home linen collections of bed, bath and table linens in cotton giza, cashmere and silk. The atelier is based in the Palazzo dei Pittori, a three-floor historic building on Via San Mauro in Burano.
Verona outerwear house founded 2006 by Moreno Faccincani (an anagram gives the brand its name), building on down-jacket experience from his family's business and his own 1999 women's outerwear line, FEYEM. Known for Siberian goose-down parkas and coats finished with cashmere, silk and custom hardware.
Best for Luxe technical down.
Moorer was founded in Verona in 2006 by Moreno Faccincani, whose family had long manufactured down jackets; the brand's name is an anagram of his own. Faccincani's path began in 1999, when he launched a women's outerwear line called FEYEM. The Moorer collection, expanded to include menswear by 2006, is built around technical outerwear using Siberian goose down, finished with cashmere, silk, and custom-made buttons and zippers. All production is carried out in Italy.
Trading on Rua 5 de Outubro since 1983, O Cesto gathers Portuguese handwork across ceramics, cork, wool blankets, basketry, filigree and painted tiles. The stock is sourced from individual Alentejo artisans and sold from a compact shop in the walled centre.
Best for A curated spread of Alentejo crafts under one roof
Agnona was founded in 1953 in Borgosesia, in the wool country between Biella and the Alps, by Francesco Ilorini Mo — a fabric man before anything else.
Best for Noble-fiber coats.
<p>Agnona was founded in 1953 in Borgosesia, in the wool country between Biella and the Alps, by Francesco Ilorini Mo — a fabric man before anything else. The house made its name supplying noble fibers to the great couturiers: camel hair, cashmere, alpaca and vicuña woven with a softness that Paris ateliers could not source elsewhere. The label on the garment came later; the cloth was always the point.</p><p>That fiber-first inheritance still defines the house. An Agnona coat argues quietly — undyed naturals, double-face constructions finished by hand, colors that stay within the range of the animals themselves. Brought into the Ermenegildo Zegna orbit, Agnona became the women's counterpart to the group's fabric mastery: the same Piedmontese mills, the same obsession with raw material, cut for her.</p><p>In a market where luxury shouts, Agnona is nearly inaudible by design — the shape simple, the hand extraordinary. It belongs to the small club of houses where the price is explained not by the logo but by touch, and where the province that wove Europe's finest cloth for a century signs its own name.</p>
The Kraków label works with restrained shapes, neutral palettes and Scandinavian references across women’s clothing. Its Józefa Street boutique gives visitors a direct place to see the seasonal cuts and try the proportions.
Best for Smart women's attire based on minimal, formal Scandinavian style
Selling hand and machine-knit Aran sweaters from Irish knitters, with its original shop on Inis Mór and further stores in Galway, Killarney and Dublin; a hand-knit sweater can take a knitter up to sixty days and roughly 100,000 stitches, using undyed báinín wool in cable-stitch patterns.
Best for Aran Sweaters, Traditional
The Aran sweater itself is a relatively modern craft: knitting historians date its development to the 1890s-1930s, when the Congested Districts Board sent fishing instructors to the Aran Islands who introduced guernsey-knitting techniques already used in Britain; island knitters adapted them using thicker local wool, arriving at the cable-stitch, cream-colored báinín style recognized today. A popular story claims each family or fisherman had a unique pattern for identifying drowned bodies; that claim has been traced to John Millington Synge's 1904 play 'Riders to the Sea' and has been rejected by knitting historians including Richard Rutt and Alice Starmore as folklore rather than documented tradition. Commercial demand took off in the 1950s-60s after the Clancy Brothers wore Aran sweaters on television, including on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Aran Sweater Market sells both hand-knit and machine or hand-loom-knit sweaters sourced from Irish knitters and designers, from its original premises in Kilronan on Inis Mór alongside stores in Galway, Killarney and Dublin. A genuine hand-knit sweater, the company says, involves roughly 100,000 stitches and can take a knitter up to sixty days to complete.
Arte Mix, trading as Terwarte Tejidos y Artesanías, hand-crochets and knits accessories and clothing from its Puerto Natales shop, alongside wood, metal and glass pieces, taking custom orders by phone, WhatsApp or in person.
Best for Hand-crocheted accessories and clothing alongside wood
Arte Mix, trading as Terwarte Tejidos y Artesanías, runs as a small artisan storefront on Fresia Sepúlveda in Puerto Natales, the gateway town for Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia. The shop's core work is hand-crochet and knitting — accessories and clothing worked by hand rather than machine-made — sold alongside pieces in wood, metal and glass, giving the storefront a broader craft-market range than a single-material specialist. Rather than running a full online store, the business takes orders and custom requests directly: by phone, by WhatsApp, or in person at the shop, a structure that suits a small-batch, made-to-order model over standing inventory. That approach is typical of the artisan shops clustered around Puerto Natales' town center, which serve both local demand and the steady flow of visitors passing through en route to Torres del Paine National Park. For a traveler looking for a handmade souvenir rather than a mass-produced one, Arte Mix offers a direct line to the maker — a phone call or a walk-in visit rather than a checkout page — in one of Patagonia's main trekking gateway towns.
Ayni Bolivia runs its own fair trade storefronts in La Paz, channeling alpaca knitwear and handicrafts from organized weaver and artisan groups directly to buyers without the usual layers of middlemen. The name comes from the Aymara principle of reciprocal labor exchange, which the shop applies to how it prices and sources from its producer network.
Best for Fair trade alpaca knitwear and handicrafts
Barna specialises in cashmere knitwear made in Umbria, with sweaters, cardigans and accessories built around yarn quality. The small range rewards checking fibre composition, gauge and finishing rather than shopping by logo.
Scottish knitwear manufacturer owned by Chanel — traditional cashmere craft combined with high-fashion sensibilities. The pinnacle of Scottish cashmere.
Berle sells Norwegian wool sweaters, blankets, and sealskin boots from a shop among the wooden Hanseatic buildings of Bryggen, Bergen's UNESCO-listed waterfront. Alongside the knitwear it stocks Norwegian gifts and homeware.
Best for Norwegian wool knitwear on the Bryggen wharf
Berthe Aux Grands Pieds focuses on French sock and hosiery label for colorful socks, tights, knee-highs, and statement accessories. At France, the range centers on colorful French socks, tights, and knee-highs.
Best for Colorful French socks, tights, and knee-highs
Established in 2013, the shop sells handmade Romanian ie blouses and Ukrainian vyshyvanka embroidery made mainly of linen and cotton with hand embroidery, plus wool coats and knitwear, sourced through more than 40 artisans across Transylvania, Muntenia, Oltenia and Moldova. It states its pieces have been featured in Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Guardian and The New York Times.
Boden sells colourful wardrobe basics, print-led dresses, knitwear and children’s clothing through a catalogue-rooted model. The broad range favours dependable seasonal pieces and coordinated family dressing over avant-garde fashion.
Brora makes cashmere knitwear and natural-fibre clothing with a Scottish heritage identity. Yarn, ply and construction are the meaningful differences across understated sweaters, cardigans and accessories.
Centro Textil Acllas is run by entrepreneurial women from different Chinchero communities working together to preserve native, all-natural handmade textiles. They weave table runners, shawls, baby carriers, blankets and sweaters from alpaca and sheep wool, dyed with natural colors from plants, flowers, mosses and insects.
Chiloe a Mano, in Puerto Montt, Chile, sells sheep and cattle hide products such as chair covers, bed coverings, slippers and insoles alongside hand-woven sweaters dyed with natural herbs from the area. The tannery behind it was founded in 1952 by the Winkler family and is now run by Cueros del Sur and Chiloe a Mano.
Housed in an eighteenth-century wool barn at Filkins, this working mill weaves cloth, throws and scarves on traditional looms. The showroom sells the mill's own tweeds and knitwear alongside a small exhibition on the Cotswold wool trade.
The same family has run this mill on the River Barrow in Graiguenamanagh for six generations, hand-dyeing and weaving mohair and Irish DK wool into throws, blankets, and scarves under OEKO-TEX and Responsible Wool Standard certification. The mill also spins its own yarns and turns out socks, hats, gloves, and lanolin skincare made from its wool by-products.
Custom Woolen Mills is a family-owned woolen mill in Carstairs, Alberta that has produced woolen and exotic fibre products for over 40 years using industrial-era machinery dating back to the 1800s. It makes carded wool, yarns, bedding, socks, blankets and felted items from wool sourced directly from Western Canada farmers, and offers custom processing of customers' own wool, alpaca, mohair and bison fibre.
Italian cashmere knitwear brand founded 2000 by Pierangelo Fenzi, acquired by the Calzedonia Group in 2009; knitted at its own facility in Avio, Trento, sourcing yarn directly to cut out middlemen.
Best for Ultralight cashmere.
Falconeri was founded in 2000 by Pierangelo Fenzi and acquired in 2009 by the Calzedonia Group, the Verona-based fashion conglomerate that also owns Calzedonia, Intimissimi, and Tezenis. The brand specializes in cashmere and other natural-fiber knitwear, sourcing yarn directly rather than through intermediaries. Its production is centered at a facility in Avio, in the province of Trento, reported to run roughly 150 knitting machines producing on the order of 1,900 jumpers a day. Falconeri officially entered the U.S. market in 2019.
Prato textile house founded 1949, still family-run; third-generation Monica Sarti launched the first scarf collection in 2000, woven from cashmere, wool, silk and modal at the family mill.
Best for Featherweight artistic scarves.
Faliero Sarti's roots go back to 1948-1949 in Prato, Tuscany, when its namesake founder began working fine yarns - cashmere, virgin wool and silk - into knit fabrics and jersey, eventually supplying haute couture and pret-a-porter houses. In 1991 third-generation family member Monica Sarti began developing scarves for the house, and the first dedicated Faliero Sarti scarf collection launched in 2000. Today the range spans cashmere, wool, silk and modal scarves and stoles, alongside a home collection, sold through the company's own boutiques (Florence, Rome, Milan, Forte dei Marmi, Porto Rotondo) and its e-commerce site.
Founded in 1978 in Castiglione del Lago, Umbria, by Silvana Parrini as a small embroidery workshop, Fioroni grew into a cashmere knitwear specialist under her husband Palmiro Fiorini; acquired by Neapolitan tailoring house Cesare Attolini in 2015, it still hand-finishes its knitwear with around thirty artisans.
Best for Polo Shirts, Artisan; Cashmere, Artisan
Fioroni is an Italian luxury knitwear house based in Castiglione del Lago, on the shore of Lake Trasimeno in Umbria. It began in 1978 as a small artisanal workshop founded by Silvana Parrini, producing embroidery and handcrafted textiles with a single sewing machine and one craftswoman. Her husband, Palmiro Fiorini, later joined the business, and production gradually shifted toward knitwear; the company formally registered its own Fioroni brand in 2008. In 2015 the house was acquired by Cesare Attolini, the well-known Neapolitan bespoke tailoring family, bringing Fioroni into a larger luxury menswear group while it continued to operate its own workshop and label. Today around thirty craftspeople work at the Fioroni factory, combining computerized machinery with hand-finishing: collars, cuffs, sleeves and armholes are stitched, hemmed, buttonholed and buttoned by hand on many pieces. The house sources cashmere from Mongolia, China and Kashmir and is known in menswear retail circles (stocked by shops such as Guarino, Braun Hamburg, Gabucci and Sartale) for soft-finish sweaters and cardigans at the higher end of Italian knitwear.
Scottish golf apparel heritage brand established 1891, producing merino knitwear and outerwear for links and fairway with Ryder Cup partnership history.
Best for Golf knitwear, merino
Glenmuir is a Scottish golf clothing manufacturer based in Lanark, with a heritage spanning over 130 years since its 1891 founding. The brand specializes in apparel designed specifically for the golf course: shirts, sweaters, outerwear, trousers, and accessories. Glenmuir describes its collections as 'golf shirts born from the links, golf outerwear shaped by the weather, and golf sweaters made by the many hands and families that give Glenmuir its name.' The company maintained a notable 30-year partnership with the European Ryder Cup team, reinforcing its position within competitive golf culture. Glenmuir's approach balances traditional Scottish craftsmanship with purpose-driven contemporary design, rooted in more than a century of dedicated golf clothing manufacture. The brand also operates subsidiary lines including Sunderland and MacWet, extending its golf and outdoor apparel portfolio.
GOBI Cashmere has produced 100% Mongolian cashmere garments in its own Ulaanbaatar facility since 1981, sourcing only the top five percent of the country's cashmere clip. The brand sells sweaters, coats, and accessories worldwide through its online shop with region-specific pricing and shipping.
Abruzzo knitwear factory since 1952 at the foot of its namesake mountain — fine-gauge polos and knits. Its cashmere line includes exceptional knitted polos and fine-gauge sweaters.
Guðrun & Guðrun designs hand-knitted sweaters, cardigans and accessories from Faroese wool, working with women knitters across the Faroe Islands to produce each piece. The full collection is sold through the brand's online shop, which ships internationally.
German knitwear label trading as Heimat Textil, founded in 2016 by Christian Hofmann, making sailor- and military-inspired sweaters - including heavy multi-ply 'U-Boat' crew knits - entirely in Germany.
Best for Nautical, Sweaters, Coats
A German knitwear label trading as 'Heimat' (Heimat Textil) makes sailor- and military-inspired sweaters, including heavy multi-ply 'U-Boat' crew knits modeled on WWII-era submariner sweaters, produced entirely in Germany. Stockists including The Armoury describe the label's design language as classic silhouettes reinterpreted with German manufacturing quality.
Heritage Fleece focuses on Italian technical knit, premium fleece of heritage styling. Production is associated with Italy, while the range centers on Fleece, Technical Knit.
Belgian knitwear brand established 1981 by Morrison, launching Howlin' label 2009; Scottish-made lambswool and wool knits with traditional craftsman finishing.
Best for Playful Scottish and Irish knitwear
Howlin' traces its roots to 1981 when Morrison, a Belgian knitwear company, began producing quality knitted pieces. In 2009, the brand launched the independent Howlin' label to explore more creative design freedom while maintaining traditional manufacturing practices. The name derives from Scottish slang for 'smelly,' referencing the authentic, lived-in quality of well-worn knitwear. The brand utilizes traditional Scottish and Irish manufacturing practices, with hand-finishing by skilled craftspeople. Howlin's signature collection includes the 'Soft Poison' series made from multi-shade marled lambswool yarn, knitted in Scotland with heavy washing to achieve an ultra-soft hand reminiscent of cashmere. The complete range encompasses sweaters, cardigans, and beanies crafted from high-quality wool including soft lambswool and Merino. Every product is individually manufactured and hand-finished in Scotland, Ireland, or Belgium using the finest available yarns. Howlin' represents a contemporary take on heritage knitwear traditions, combining Scottish and Irish craftsmanship with Belgian creative direction.
Norsk Flid Husfliden Bergen specializes in bunads from Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane, with an in-house sewing room where trained makers produce regional dress. Downstairs, a large yarn department covers wool, cotton and linen yarns with patterns, tools and knitting guidance.
Best for Bunad, yarn, Norwegian craft supplies and traditional goods
On the Ibenstein farm near Dordabis, Marianne Krafft, daughter of diamond-finder August Stauch, established the property's first weaving centre using Karakul sheep wool. Her son Michael Krafft later reorganised the farm's operations and set up its game safari business in the mid-1970s.
Cashmere knitwear manufacturer in Torgiano, Umbria, founded in 1985 by Ivo Cetra and Alberta Baccaille; produces handcrafted sweaters, cardigans and scarves, reportedly under its own Dobie Jones (Europe) and Pullaround (Americas/Asia) lines.
Best for Cashmere, contemporary
Ima Cashmere is a knitwear manufacturer based in Torgiano, in the Umbria region near Perugia, founded in 1985 by Ivo Cetra and his wife Alberta Baccaille. The company produces handcrafted cashmere garments for men, women and children, describing its production as fully Made in Italy. Italian and regional business directories describe two branded lines sold under the Ima Cashmere umbrella: Dobie Jones, aimed at the European market, and Pullaround, aimed at North America, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.
Inis Meáin runs its own knitting factory on Ireland's Aran Islands, producing luxury Irish wool knitwear. Its collections elevate traditional gansey construction with an Italian-boutique finish, all made on the island itself.
Best for Aran Knitwear, Irish Wool
Inis Meáin is one of the three Aran Islands, thirty miles off the western shore of Ireland. For centuries the women of the island knitted the fishermen's garments. Their diamonds and cables, tree of life and moss stitches echo the seas and skies around them, and the stone walls. Inis Meáin Knitting Company was founded on the island in 1976 by Tarlach de Blácam and Áine Ní Chonghaile. Tarlach, a graduate in Celtic Languages from Trinity College Dublin, had come to the island in the late sixties to steep himself in the language. Áine was a native of Inis Meáin teaching in Dublin. When the pair married in 1973 they resolved to make their home there. They first worked on projects that brought electricity and running water to the island, and a harbour. Then they equipped a small factory with six knitting machines and took on young islanders who might otherwise have emigrated. The company still designs and makes every piece in its island workshop, finishing each by hand. It chooses not to mass produce, changing the settings on its machines several times a day to make up to 50 styles a season. Yarns in wool and silk come with cashmere and alpaca, and with linen, from mills across Europe and South America. Alongside the decorated Aran styles once kept for formal wear, the house revived the plain grey and navy workwear the island women knitted for everyday use.
Inveloveritas redraws the geometries and motifs of Sardinian craft for contemporary clothing and objects. Giuseppe Scalas and Maria Francesca Maniga founded the label and made its knitwear, stoles, foulards together between 2015 and 2023. Graphics are designed digitally, screen printed by hand, then painted on the cloth. The label works a local supply chain and describes its output as made in Italy.
Best for Sardinian pattern redrawn on hand screen-printed shawls and scarves.
Inveloveritas is a fashion and design label that reworks Sardinian tradition for the present. Giuseppe Scalas and Maria Francesca Maniga founded it, and between 2015 and 2023 they produced the knitwear, the stoles and the foulards together with every drawing used on the furnishing pieces. Since 2023 they have worked separately. The method sits between the studio and the workshop. Graphics are drawn digitally, printed by artisanal screen printing, then finished with hand painting on the cloth. Work that begins on paper can end as digital embroidery. The patterns come from the geometries, motifs, weaves, colours of Sardinian art and craft, redrawn so they can be worn and used rather than only looked at. Maniga trained in pattern cutting and brings the hand painting and the loud colour. Scalas draws by hand and on screen, and his work leans on geometric forms and modular decorative motifs. The label keeps its supply chain as local as it can and describes the output as made in Italy. Collaboration runs through it. Inveloveritas has held workshops with artists and artisans and has taken part in the Wall of Dolls and in Women United Against Violence, projects on the position of women. The range covers shawls, scarves, T-shirts, beach cloths, paper goods.
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