Davide Baroncini will be the first to tell you that it’s a little crazy to start a cashmere brand in Southern California, but he’ll say it with a wry smile and a twinkle in his eye that gives you the feeling he knows something you don’t. “Knitwear is complex, costly and technically hard to do. In my mind, the value of a good sweater carries more than a shirt, suit or pair of jeans – you will always take care of it. Cashmere is precious. If I can do sweaters well, the rest will come.”

Born and raised in a small village on the Italian island of Sicily and currently residing in Pasadena, California, Baroncini is the founder and designer of the burgeoning new label Ghiaia Cashmere. Ghiaia has been turning heads with its elegant design, distinct ethos and the slew of noteworthy people that have been spotted wearing it. However, for Baroncini, the brand is grounded in something more tangible, “The name Ghiaia came from a pebble that we have in Sicily, I grew up with it under my feet. To me, it made sense to start there. I like that it’s hard to pronounce, that it’s not my name, that it has meaning.”

It was a unique path that brought Baroncini to founding his own label. While clothing might have always been a part of his life (Baroncini’s wife told us a story about how he was asked to stop wearing suits to school in elementary school because it was making the other kids uncomfortable), his first love was soccer. Baroncini was a gifted youngster and signed a pro contract with his hometown team at the age of 17, but after rupturing his ligaments and a trade to a team that went bankrupt, he found himself without a club. Baroncini began working as a door-to-door salesman selling phone contracts. He then moved to Milan where he eventually got a retail job working for Suitsupply. With a strong work ethic and charm, Baroncini began working his way up within the company. He went from managing stores to being flown all over the world to work on visual merchandising for the opening of new locations. Baroncini then landed a job at the vaunted Brunello Cucinelli, where he initially worked in wholesale before moving to retail visual product knowledge.

It was while living abroad in the United States that he met his future wife. After a long-distance relationship and a failed attempt at convincing her to move to Italy, it became clear that Baroncini had to choose between his work or the love of his life, so he resigned from Brunello Cucinelli and moved to be with her in Los Angeles. “Before LA, Ghiaia was just an idea in my head, then we moved into a tiny apartment in Venice and I was bored and depressed and working on it became an outlet for me.”

Baroncini then got to work, designing everything himself and working with factories to produce all the products in Italy. Much like the name implies, Baroncini is grounded in his Italian heritage, but his inspirations branch out globally from there. He will talk just as passionately about the aesthetic of his home country as he will explain the influence Polo Ralph Lauren had on him as a kid, or how experiences like driving his motorcycle through Europe and opening stores in Shanghai and New York affect how he sees style. Even his time now in Pasadena influences how he designs pieces.

It’s hard to see where Baroncini ends and Ghiaia begins, the brand feels so much like an extension of who he is. A blend of his love for iconic style icons like Steve McQueen with his sharp understanding of modern aesthetics and design. In a day and age where brands and their founders are treated like plug-and-play commodities, Baroncini’s authenticity doesn’t go unnoticed. The vintage cars and watches, the cigars and café racers that you see alongside his product are not just an aspirational mood board he’s curated online, but a real glimpse into his world.