Pietro Antonio Loro Piana was born in Trivero, in the wool district of Biella, on 6 September 1883, the son of Giacomo Loro Piana and Clementina Zignone. His family had traded in woollen cloth since the early nineteenth century and in the second half of that century moved to the Valsesia, where they founded the Fratelli Lora e Compagnia spinning mill, followed in the early twentieth century by Zignone & C. in Quarona. His own Wikipedia article credits him with founding both mills; the company history attributes them to the family more broadly.
An engineer by training, he founded a new firm, Ing. Loro Piana & C., in Corso Rolandi, Quarona, on 24 April 1924. It is the date the company still celebrates; Loro Piana marked its centenary in 2024 with events including the Shanghai exhibition "If You Know, You Know. Loro Piana's Quest for Excellence". He died in 1941, and after the Second World War his nephew Franco took over and began exporting to Europe, the Americas and Japan.