Meet the sultans of style

Fortune's second annual Luxury Portfolio features the moguls, merchants and master craftsmen who are defining the business of luxury.

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The Kings of Cashmere
The Kings of Cashmere
Since taking the reins of the family textile business in the 1970s, the brothers Loro Piana have transformed it into a bona fide luxury brand, with more than $600 million in annual sales. The cashmere conglomerate now boasts 111 stores worldwide, in addition to supplying its fabrics to leading designers.

Scouring the world for deluxe fleeces, the company sources its cashmere from China and Mongolia, its wool from Australia and New Zealand, and its vicuña from Peru. (A vicuña is an Andean relative of the llama with a super-soft, super-pricey pelt). Back in Italy, fraternity extends to corporate governance: Chairman and CEO Pier Luigi (right) and co-chairman Sergio swap titles every three years.

Photographed at Pier Luigi Loro Piana's home in Valsesia, Piedmont, Italy
By Eugenia Levenson; Photographs by Ben Baker/Redux

NEXT: The Image Makers
Last updated August 21 2008: 6:08 PM ET
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