Intentional design
Everything we do starts with a why
Made with care
Knit-to-order in NYC
A Family Legacy
A grandmother's label, revived
meet the founders
Meet Michelle
Michelle Schafer grew up in her grandmother’s knitwear and inherited her grandmother’s innate sense of style and fashion, very much shaped by the classic designs of her mother’s and both of her grandmothers’ eras. Their passions for fine fabrics and yarns, and general style sensibility was passed down cleanly and clearly to Michelle.
A lifelong fashionista, who made a 35 year career in finance, Michelle still found opportunities over the years to express her more creative side. She learned to paint and draw at her paternal grandfather’s side (who became a fine art oil painter after he retired from *his* career) … and she dabbled in art, custom bridal design and interior decorating as side-hobbies throughout her professional career, as creative outlets for her artists’ soul.
Now at the age many others would be retiring, Michelle is pivoting in an opposite direction: to fully-engage with the fashion industry. Partnered with her niece Caitlan, she is dedicating the next chapter of her life to the vital and heart-felt endeavor of relaunching Agnes’ dress label with her niece Caitlan, (originally Agnes Piersant of Phila.) revived under her grandmother’s full name, finally: Agnes Piersanti.
Based just outside of the Philadelphia area in the town of Lawrenceville New Jersey, Michelle is supported in this endeavor by her loving husband of 30 years, David and her loyal sidekick, a teri-poo named Sophia.
She is back to riding the train into NYC on a regular basis, but no longer to “clock in” for a 9-5 day job … this time to wander the famed NYC garment district to hand-select the most beautiful and special notions, gorgeous fabrics for small-batch specialty garments, or hop the N/Q/R over to Brooklyn to visit their knitwear production partner’s factory.
Creating lovely things, reflective of the heritage story of the Agnes Piersanti label, but re-imagined for the modern woman.
meet the founders
Meet Cait
Cait grew up often playing "dress up" in her relatives' closets - including in a variety of her paternal great-grandmother's knitwear. Born in suburban Maryland (a Millennial) she also painted under the tutelage of her great-grandfather - at a much more amateur level, but his nature, ocean, lake, and wilderness oil paintings set the tone for much of her adult aesthetic.
After attending college in Washington, D.C., Cait flew the nest to Alaska - where she lived out her wilderness fantasy - exploring and hiking, becoming an aficionado of postcard writing to stay in touch with her friends and family in the “lower 48”. While in Alaska, Cait also gained a true appreciation for the important role that a gorgeous, thick cashmere sweater plays in one's wardrobe. It was after finding a roll of her great-grandmother's original Agnes Piersant labels at her Aunt Michelle’s house, that the idea was born to relaunch the line as a family endeavour, and despite it taking years to convince her Aunt Michelle to take the idea seriously, it all came together *like a charm* as they say, in the end.
During the day Cait works (from a glamorous-sounding “overseas post”) in data and map making, but is excited to expand into a more creative period of her life as co-Founder of Agnes Piersanti | Knitwear With A Story, while residing in the country it all began, Italy - Naples, specifically - with her trusty sidekick, a very fluffy, photogenic cat named Quill.
From Italy, Cait will be visiting Agnes Piersanti's merino wool & cashmere yarn mills, touring the countryside (including a Fall 2026 visit to Agnes’ small village in Abruzzi) and keeping tabs on the latest fashion trends via her “man on the street” reporting. Oh, and hopefully sharing many reels and pictures of Italy’s finest gelatos, pizzas and spritzes!
In between all the sightseeing, touring and filming …. Cait is also riding shotgun with her Aunt Michelle, keeping all of the back of house operations organized for them (organization is her *jam*) and spearheading the brand’s more youthful design label Aunt Aggie Knits, where she’ll explore her love for graphics, patterns, bold colors, oh, and yes, all things “coffee” related.
Bonus points if it's a spiced pumpkin latte (IYKYK).
Meet Agnes
Agnes Piersanti was born in January, 1905, in a small village located on the Adriatic Sea in the Abruzzi region of Italy. The second child to her young parents, Rosa and Giovanni, she sailed to America in 1911 - departing from Naples on the Taormina - with her older brother and her mother, to join her father who had gone ahead a few years’ prior to prepare for the family’s arrival.
The young family settled in South Philadelphia and Rosa and Giovanni went on to have 2 more children, Agnes’ younger brother and sister John & Rene. While she only attended school through the 8th grade, Agnes was always wise beyond her years and proved to be - not only a talented designer and craftswoman - but also a savvy businesswoman, building her knitwear company from the ground up and employing her mother and the neighborhood ladies for the hand knitting of her original designs.
At its zenith, her dress label, Agnes Piersant of Philadelphia was carried in some of the finest East Coast department stores, including John Wanamaker's, Bonwit Teller, and Peck & Peck. But her name “Piersanti” became “Piersant”...out of necessity; to sound less Italian, as strong prejudices against Italian immigrants persisted through the mid-20th century. Nonetheless, her classic design aesthetic and her drive to build something lasting fuelled
her family's livelihood for twenty-five years. In fact, her extended family’s business was solidly rooted in the garment industry, with her father, brother, and husband all working as tailors in the Philadelphia area through their respective lives.
In 1931 at 26 years old, Agnes married Mike Glielmi, who was also of Italian descent. Several years later, in 1938, their daughter Roslyn (“Roz” to friends and family) was born. Agnes found herself a new mother and also a business owner, her knitwear business already launched. To be a working mother - as an independent business owner - in 1938 was certainly ahead of the times, to put it mildly - but Agnes took it in stride, as was her way.
During WWII Agnes, Mike & Roslyn traveled around the United States for Mike’s job as tailor for the U.S. Army, and after the war, they settled back in Philadelphia, where their daughter Roslyn grew-up, attended school and eventually met her husband-to-be, and then married in 1960, in the Catholic Church one block away from the family’s home in Overbrook Farms neighborhood of West Philadelphia.
While Agnes’ commercial knitwear business had wound-down around the time her granddaughter Michelle was born in 1961, the extended family nevertheless grew up in and amongst Agnes’ beautiful knitted and crocheted garments. At that point in Agnes’ story, her daughter Roz was newly married with a baby, but Agnes’ parents were growing older. She took care of them to the end, her mother Rosa and father Giovanni dying within months of each other in 1965. We know how close she was with her own mother, her entire life, and how she cared for Rosa when she was on her deathbed, combing and tying ribbons in her hair. Throughout her entire life Aggie looked after her siblings, her parents and in-laws, her husband Mike and his 11 brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews and their families, and of course her daughter Roslyn, who was the apple of her eye, and always the best-dressed belle at every dance.
So who was she, as a woman?
Agnes was a matriarch in the truest sense of the word, bigger than life, opinionated and unwilling to pull her punches. All while knitting for everyone, cooking for everyone, baking Italian delicacies at Christmas time, and generally looking over all that was going on throughout her extended family - including sharing opinions and advice (solicited or not). And yes - the big, boisterous weekly Italian-style Sunday Dinner was a very real thing. She was true to her own nature and comfortable in her own skin throughout her entire life, right up until the end, and the piece she was knitting (a baby-blanket) when she passed away in 1996 at the age of 91 was passed down, along with her original labels.
When she died 30 years ago, a light was extinguished that cannot be re-lit. She lived life to its fullest, imparting the invaluable lesson to her family to make the best of what you have, and to “dig-in” and to get your hands dirty if necessary, as she had always done. Oh and another truism she imparted: if you cannot do something right, don't do it at all. [sidenote: Aggie never once hosted a “pot-luck” dinner, if you were invited to her table, she made ALL the food, by hand, and then served it to you].
So that “do it right” sentiment has been taken to heart. And she passed along her remaining vintage dress labels to her daughter Roz, who then passed them along to her daughter Michelle, always tucked away in a bag, living in the back of a drawer for decades. Yes, those labels.
And now, fast-forward to 2026.
Side-by-side her granddaughter (Michelle) and her great-granddaughter (Caitlan) strive to honor her memory by reviving the original vintage label, Agnes Piersant, this time, restoring that discarded “i” at the end of her name so it's read fully: Agnes Piersanti.
Agnes’ soulful design aesthetic still shines as Michelle and Cait’s “north star” in bringing to life another generation of gorgeous, thoughtfully designed, carefully crafted knitwear for a 21st century woman.
This was Agnes’ story.
Tell us yours.