Zegna and the power of the past, Ralph Lauren's American tailoring

A new fashion week begins in Milan - men's fashion, autumn-winter 26-27 - but the frenzy for change at any cost, for the new for the new, seems to be silenced for once. Wisely, it must be said, and it is still only the first day. Operating on continuity instead of rupture is easier when it comes to menswear, but the assumption is valid across the board.

At Zegna, creative director Alessandro Sartori works around a metaphor that is not really a metaphor, but a condition of continuity: the family wardrobe, the place where beloved and precious things are kept so that they are not only preserved from oblivion, but also used years or decades later in the succession of generations. The show, not by chance, moves suspended in the dimension between public and private: the catwalk is a composition of carpets and in the centre of the room stands a real, giant wardrobe: a cabin whose half-open doors reveal clothes from the archive of the collections as well as from the wardrobes of Gildo and Paolo Zegna. There is also suit no. 1, made to measure in the 1930s for Ermenegildo Zegna, the founder.

Two models open in a dressing gown, enter the wardrobe and come out dressed - a literal, but effective expedient - and from there it is a succession of long silhouettes with strong shoulders, of split suits in which even the shirt has the weight and pattern of jacket and trousers, of double-breasted suits with reinvented button-downs and double-collared jackets.

Says Sartori: "As a consciously chosen outer garment, clothes are the pages of a diary we write throughout our existence, objects of affection and emotion. I am interested in the sense of wonder that one feels when one finds a garment that belonged to a father, grandfather, uncle; the discovery that comes from studying other ways of dressing, that drives one to try something new; the silent dialogue that is established between bodies and ways of behaving. We take great pride and commitment in what we do, so the idea of creating something that can be kept, reused and reinterpreted for a long time gives us energy.

The point is this: to work on garments by thinking of them as collectables, which is the exact opposite of disposable fashion, and one of the progressive ways of thinking about luxury ready-to-wear in the present day.