Franco Loro Piana was the nephew of the engineer Pietro Loro Piana, who founded the wool company Ing. Loro Piana & C. at Quarona in Valsesia, near Biella, in April 1924, building on generations of family trading in wool. Franco took over the business in the 1940s; the Gentleman's Journal dates this to 1941, while English and Italian Wikipedia say immediately after the Second World War.
He turned the company towards the top of the market. According to French Wikipedia he began selling to the Paris couture houses, including a fine, light fabric called Tasmanian wool, and in the 1960s the company produced two versions, Tasmanian and winter Tasmanian, in pure virgin merino. He exported to Europe, the Americas and Japan, and Wikipedia credits him with making the name widely known in international high fashion. The Gentleman's Journal writes that Loro Piana fabrics were bought by the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, by Giorgio Armani for his power suits, and by Savile Row tailors such as Anderson & Sheppard.
In the 1970s, from 1975 according to German Wikipedia, his sons Sergio (1948–2013) and Pier Luigi (born 1951) took over the running of the company, which they led in alternation for almost forty years until LVMH bought it in 2013.
Sources disagree on whether the Tasmanian fabric was developed under Franco (French Wikipedia) or by his sons in the 1970s (English Wikipedia). Casadi has not verified his dates of birth and death. He is not to be confused with his younger namesake, a co-founder of the sportswear brand Sease.