RPT-FEATURE-For cashmere capitalist, dignity is bottom line

* Luxury cashmere firm run on "human" principles

* Managing growth despite sector slowdown

* Founder blends spirit of capitalism with philosophy

By Philip Pullella

SOLOMEO, Italy, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Motivated at age 15 by the tears in his father's eyes when the former farmer was forced to accept a factory job, Brunello Cucinelli is anything but an orthodox capitalist.

His colourful cashmere brand is defying recessionary shrinkage across the luxury sector -- a feat achieved while creating ideal conditions for his workers.

He has converted most of a stone 14th-century town in Umbria into a factory where no-one punches a time clock, lunch breaks are generous and the only rules pasted on the walls are quotes from philosophers and writers.

"I believe in real capitalism. The company has to make profits," he said in a sprawling, spotless office lined with shelves of spools of cashmere on one side and philosophical treatises on the other.