The Thread That Connects Us

Silk has always been a traveler, and the story of how it found its way to the shores of Lake Como — and into the hands of our artisan families — is one of the great adventures in craft history.

For two thousand years, China held silk’s secret under imperial lock and key. When it finally broke into Europe around 550 CE, it sparked a centuries-long journey through Byzantium, Sicily, and the city-states of Renaissance Italy. Weavers were captured, families were scattered, knowledge passed from hand to hand across language and border. Each stop along the way added something new: a dyeing technique, a weaving innovation, a regional character that made the fabric distinctly its own.

Como was the final destination — and it turned out to be the perfect one. The soft Alpine waters of the lake, the accumulated wisdom of generations of weavers and dyers, and a tradition of vertical craft (raw thread to finished silk, all in one place) produced what many still regard as the world’s finest silk. That tradition has never stopped.

The families behind every Pareto Italy scarf are the living continuation of this story. They didn’t learn silk — they were born into it. And over time they expanded their mastery to include Italian wool, satin, and cashmere, bringing the same generational care to every fiber. When you wrap yourself in a Pareto Italy piece, you’re holding the end of a very long, very beautiful thread.

The journey in brief

2000 BCE · China

Silk is born under imperial secrecy. The secret of sericulture is protected by decree for two millennia.

550 CE · Byzantium

Silkworm cultivation reaches Constantinople. Monks smuggle eggs in hollow bamboo staffs (or so the legend goes), and a state monopoly is born.

1147 · Sicily

Roger II captures Byzantine weavers from Corinth and Thebes and transplants them to Palermo — moving not just fabric, but living knowledge.

1200s · Lucca, Italy

Italy’s first silk capital rises. Lucchese artisans perfect weaving technology, found guilds, and export to the royal courts of England and all of Europe.

1300s · The diaspora

War scatters Lucchese artisans across the peninsula — to Venice, Florence, Genoa — seeding the Italian silk tradition everywhere they land.

Today · Como endures

The lake district carries the tradition forward, still regarded as the world’s finest silk. Pareto Italy’s artisan families are its living expression.