Gran Sasso ⭐ Top pick

It all started with an accident. Two knitting machines received to settle a debt, four brothers from Abruzzo who knew nothing about knitwear, and a garage. Seventy years later, Gran Sasso is the international reference for Italian knitwear. Sometimes the best stories start by chance.

Sant'Egidio alla Vibrata, on the border between Abruzzo and Marche, 1952. The four Di Stefano brothers - Nello, Eraldo, Alceo and Francesco - work at markets. One day, they receive two knitting machines as payment for an unsettled debt. They know nothing about it. They set up the machines in a garage and start making men's sweaters. By pure chance.

The story could have ended there. But the Di Stefanos have the tempra abruzzese - the mountain people's grit. They learn, perfect, grow. The name comes from Gran Sasso d'Italia, the highest Apennine massif, visible from their village. In the 1960s, production industrializes without losing craftsmanship. The 1970s see cashmere introduced. The 1980s, exports.

In 2022, Il Sole 24 Ore celebrates the brand's 70th anniversary. Guido Di Stefano, third generation, is at the helm. The company has never been sold, never offshored. Everything is made in Sant'Egidio, in Abruzzo, with noble raw materials: cashmere, extra-fine merino, Egyptian cotton, linen, silk.

Gran Sasso isn't part of the hype circuit. No streetwear collaborations, no campaigns with famous models. Distribution goes through sartorial multi-brand stores: Baltzar (Stockholm), Braun (Hamburg), Lodenfrey (Munich), Care of Carl (Sweden). The kind of brand an Italian tailor recommends and a Japanese buyer knows by heart.

It's the perfect guide story: an accident turned into heritage, a family that holds firm, a product that speaks for itself.