Drago

High-twist superfine merino, spun and woven in Biella

Drago is one of Biella's younger houses. Umberto and Laura Drago founded it in 1973 as a spinning business, and it became a valued partner to the leading wool houses of the district before it turned to cloth of its own. It is a family house still.

Its start in yarn shaped the house. Drago still combs and spins its own, then weaves and finishes the cloth at its own works in Lessona and Verrone, in the Biella wool district. A house that spins for itself can chase a particular hand rather than accept whatever the yarn market offers.

What we buy from Drago is high-twist superfine merino. The twist puts spring into the cloth, so trousers recover their crease and a jacket shrugs off a long day of sitting.

That makes it our standing answer for the client who travels. If the diary runs to aeroplanes and back-to-back days, start with the Drago bunches at your fitting: this is cloth made to be packed and worn hard, and to look pressed at the other end.