20 stores · curated ORBIS register
Undyed wool and linen feature at Cleo Ltd, which sells hand-knits and hand-weaves from small Irish makers on Kildare Street. The Dublin business began in 1936, while Devernois makes knitwear in its original workshops in Roanne. The French house dates to 1927, with family ownership continuing through the founder's granddaughter. Monza's Fedeli moved from hatmaking into knitwear after the war, later developing cashmere knitwear within its Italian factory.
Kildare Street
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.
Best for Hand-knit Irish wool and linen clothing
France
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.
Porto
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
Monza, Italy
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.
Biella, Italy
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.
Via Dei Condotti, Rome / Online
Swiss legwear since 1921 — Zurich hosiery in more than a hundred shades.
Best for Luxury hosiery.
Milan, Italy
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.
Scotland
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.
Dambach-la-Ville / Alsace / Online
Labonal has knitted socks at Dambach-la-Ville in Alsace since Salomon Lipovski founded La Bonneterie Alsacienne in 1924. A management team led by Dominique Malfait kept production in the town when the French textile trade moved abroad. The factory marked its centenary in 2024 with ninety knitting machines making around 6,000 pairs a day. Ranges run from fil d'Ecosse dress socks to the Pulse sport line and La Frenchie regional designs.
Best for Durable made-in-France dress and hiking socks.
Labonal has knitted socks in Dambach-la-Ville, in Alsace, since 1924. Salomon Lipovski founded it as La Bonneterie Alsacienne with the aim of making socks that do not fall down and that fit well while wearing slowly. The company grew into the first French supplier of socks to department stores and retailers. Later a team of managers led by Dominique Malfait, now its chief executive, bought the business. They chose to keep production in Dambach-la-Ville while much of the French textile industry moved abroad. The factory at 13 route de Blienschwiller was re-equipped with new-generation knitting machines to improve automation and precision. In 2024 the company marked its centenary. It now runs ninety knitting machines producing around 6,000 pairs a day. It holds the Alsace Terre Textile and France Terre Textile labels for wholly French manufacture. Materials include combed cotton and fil d'Ecosse. Linen and wool appear too, as do silk and cashmere. The factory says every pair is washed and softened before pressing. Each one is then checked by hand in the finishing workshop. The ranges cover plain and patterned dress socks and non-binding models. A La Frenchie line offers region-themed socks in organic cotton, and a Lin de France collection uses French linen. The Pulse sport range is made for hiking and cycling. Labonal opens the factory to visitors and lists its stockists across France. Its chief executive says the company has always produced in Alsace and would not be the same anywhere else.
Magione, Umbria, Italy
Family cashmere house on Lake Trasimeno in Magione, Umbria, tracing its roots to knitting workshops Giovanni Losani opened in Perugia's Palazzo Penna in 1940; now carrying the name of a later-generation family member and based in the 'Cashmere Valley' district.
Best for Family cashmere knitwear knit overlooking Lake Trasimeno in Magione
Lamberto Losani's cashmere business traces back to 1940, when Giovanni Losani opened his first knitting workshops in Palazzo Penna in the historic center of Perugia. The company later relocated to Magione, on the shore of Lake Trasimeno, and leadership passed to Lamberto Losani, who gives the current company its name. The business sits within Umbria's cashmere district around Lake Trasimeno, known locally as the 'Cashmere Valley,' and has stayed in the same area for more than 50 years, producing women's cashmere knitwear.
Paris / Online
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.
Quarona / Piedmont / Online
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.
Prince Edward Island, Bloomfield, PEI
MacAusland's Woollen Mills has operated along Highway #2 near Mill River Resort & Golf Course since 1932, running some of its original equipment daily. The mill makes checkerboard and striped blankets, hand-crafted items, knitted goods and yarn.
Best for Wool blankets and yarn
Copenhagen, Denmark
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.
Germany
The 1911 loopwheel revival — Swabian circular-knit shirts on original machines, Good Originals indeed.
Best for Loopwheel tees, 1920s machines; Loopwheeled Vintage Tees
Dominick Street / medieval quarter
This family-run shop sells hand-knitted Aran sweaters made by knitters across the west of Ireland, alongside tweed jackets, caps and rainwear. Established in 1938, it supplied the wardrobe for the film The Quiet Man.
Best for Hand-knitted Aran sweaters
France / Online
The marinière of record — Rachel-knit Breton stripes supplying the French navy since 1939.
Best for Rachel-knit Breton stripe marinières supplying the French navy since 1939
Denmark
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.
Ironwood, Michigan / Online
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.
Tórshavn
Ullvøruhúsið has traded from Niels Finsensgøta 27 in the heart of Tórshavn since 1918, originally as a yarn and wool-ware shop and now home to the Faroese knitwear labels Steinum and Shisa Brand. The shop keeps its original wooden floors and sells its wool knitwear both in person and through an online store.
Best for Knitwear and wool shop
Curated ORBIS register · official links shown where recorded
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