Every wardrobe is a book, every dress a new chapter

There was a time when collections were made by designers. Now, at least at Zegna, the customers make the collections. Collections of garments from different seasons and years, to which new pieces are always being added. Today, as the Zegna man walks the catwalk in Milan, opening Milan's Fashion Week, Alessandro Sartori, in his tenth year as artistic director of the brand, tells us about menswear in the era of the fourth generation of the family, with Angelo and Edoardo, Gildo's sons, both in the role of co-CEO of the brand since January, Gianluca Tagliabue ceo of the group and Gildo remaining as executive chairman. "We are firmly convinced that we have a particular consumer. A consumer who collects garments, for whom seasonality is of relative importance. These garments have a high intrinsic but also symbolic value, and customers do not think of buying for one season, but for a much wider use. The entire style line is aimed at this concept: it is an aesthetic that must last. The fits, the details, the materials, the dyes are designed with this in mind, so I have two phases: one of fitting and styling with garments that we are about to launch and a second phase of styling with garments that come from last seasons' wardrobe. It is as if we were writing the chapters of a book. The book is our customer's wardrobe and within this wardrobe we need a series of elements".

The collector's item of the new season is 'the Conte jacket in Vellus Aureum. Over time we have created many iconic products: the cashmere overshirt in 2020, the short jacket in 2021, quite surprising novelties for menswear because we combined the easy styling of a sports shirt with the quality of handmade and unique materials such as Oasi Cashmere". And here are the strong points of the new Conte jacket: "It is a jacket with a stand-up collar, very versatile. It can be the top of a suit, but also a modern blazer. It expresses our founder's style: it is elegant, yet sporty, has extremely sophisticated details, such as the inside patch pocket in front in leather and fine materials, such as our Vellus Aureum, an exclusive 12 micron wool'. Raw materials, territories of origin and sustainability are the cornerstones of this brand's story. "Craft, nature and art are the three pillars that intertwine in our history and vision. Craft means style, aesthetics relating to the manufactured product. Art is realised in the family's collaboration with artists: Ermenegildo worked with Olivero Pistoletto, who was the father of Michelangelo Pistoletto. The landscape architect Pietro Porcinai was asked to design some of the valleys of the Oasi Zegna that have a very important historical and artistic value. And so we come to nature: the Oasis is an important cultural and, shall we say, value incipit. An entrepreneur who has been taking care of his community since 1910, who between 1930 and 1945 had 100 thousand trees planted, which then became 500 thousand (and today there are one million) was ingenious, because he thought not only of the infrastructural sustenance of the community (with schools, roads, a hospital), but also of the natural one. This is the origin of our green thinking, with sustainability and traceability as essential values'. Values that are creative drivers. "True design starts with the fibre, it is not born a second before, but not a second after. The 12 microns of Vellus Aureum have behind them an incredible technical study that has led to fabrics weighing from 200 to 800 grams per metre. This generates ideas and projects. The same applies to Oasi Cashmere and Oasi Lino'.

Since the product is meant to last, it is not designed and created in a short time. "If we want exclusive materials, we can't start thinking about it at the end of the previous show, so we work with a multi-seasonal concept and design some silhouettes with tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in mind. Similarly, we go to the group's five wool mills - because in addition to Ermenegildo Zegna there is Tessitura di Novara (technical silk and silk for clothing), Ubertino (jacquard fabrics), Bonotti (jacquard, printed and fashion fabrics) and Dondi, where there is the most beautiful jersey. We start designing materials for that kind of aesthetic, and the design starts with the fibre, the yarn and then the textile structures. Some products, such as some trophy wools (referring to the Ermenegildo Zegna Wool Trophy Awards, established in 1963 in Australia to reward the producers of the world's finest merino wool, ndr), featured in this show, were born a year and a half, two years ago".

Looking to the future, the new year and the company's prospects, Sartori sees 'a unique, very beautiful situation. Edoardo and Angelo have had the opportunity to breathe, to understand, to grow in this environment and today they put their own spin on it, they are extremely good. It is a generational transition that adds values, gives energy, but it is in continuity. 2026 will be rich. We have a lot of new shops opening, and we continue to open lounges, private places where you receive customers by appointment with exclusive products and personalisation services. In 2026 we will open the largest salon in the world in New York, on 57th Street, corner of Fifth'.

Projects, customisation, experimentation, fashion shows, icons. "If all this is possible, from sheep to shop, it is thanks to our ateliers. Some numbers: 70 pattern makers, a couple of hundred tailors for design alone. I remember when I went with my cashmere cuts to the atelier to have my first overshirts made, they looked at me strangely, they said: 'But we make jackets, we make suits'. The result was a product that was the crossover between the craftsmanship of tailors with fifty years of experience and the design of a garment that did not yet exist. Today, every time there is a new design, they call me to ask when we do the fittings. They have light in their eyes!".