If I had the means I could easily wear nothing but Loro Piana for the rest of my life. They make the most comfortable, classic, stylish and subtly luxurious clothes I've ever had the pleasure of putting on. World-famous for their cashmere, the 200-year-old Italian company, which began as a textile merchant, has also branched out into other areas (including accessories and women's clothing) in more recent years with equal success.

Loro Piana's motto has it that true luxury is "knowing, not showing," i.e. dressing for yourself, not to impress others. It's "an inner satisfaction that comes from an aesthetic, intellectual, tactile pleasure, stemming from tradition, research and genuine quality." What could be better than that?

Their latest innovation is called Baby Cashmere®. To make this fabric the company first had to spend several years convincing Mongolian and Chinese breeders to comb the fine underfleece of the Hyrcus goat kid when it is 3-12 months old. Each combing yields no more than 30 grams of the rare, precious and incredibly soft fibre. Baby Cashmere crops up in Loro Piana's luxe Fall/Winter 2008 collection, which is about to hit stores; as usual we want it all.

We love the knitted stretch cashmere Davenport jacket pictured here, which like a lot of their designs calls to mind a cross between Cary Grant and Steve McQueen. And also like many of their best designs it captures that ineffable quality of effortless elegance the Italians call sprezzatura. This is the kind of thing you wear for a drive to your villa on Lake Como in your Maserati Gran Turismo. Even better, merely putting on this jacket for a trip to the liquor store can make you feel like you're driving to your villa in a Maserati, which is the real test of its worth (The jacket retails for $3,995).

An ultra-rare 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II drophead coupe built for the original "Poor Little Rich Girl," Barbara Hutton, is being auctioned off on eBay with a starting bid of $1.1 million. The Woolworth Heiress originally purchased the car, one of only two ever made (and the only known example now in existence), for her first husband, the Russian Prince Alexis Mdivani. With coachwork by Thrupp & Maberly, the car cost $20,000 at the time.

This historic Rolls has something of a tragic history; Mdivani, who only stayed married to Hutton for one year (she had seven husbands in all including Cary Grant) was killed while driving it in France shortly after their divorce. Following the macabre accident, the Rolls was sent back to Thrupp & Maberly and fully restored, though the Prince was not. On the plus side, it only has 9,999 miles on it and is in beautiful shape.

[via Men.Style]