New Era: Ted Stansfield Talks To Ermenegildo Zegna Designer Alessandro Sartori

Tailoring is in Alessandro Sartori’s DNA. His mother was a tailor, you see, and he grew up surrounded by men and women in the clothing business. Actually, come to think of it, tailoring is even in his name – add an “al” to his cognome and what have you got? Wow. It seems that Sartori, who now sits at the helm of Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna, was destined to be a fashion designer.

It’s a sweltering day in late June, just days after the designer’s second runway show for the house, for which he transformed the courtyard of the Unversity of Milan with orange gravel and a tree (that reminded Lord of the Rings fans of the White Tree of Gondor) of the same hue. I’m in London, about to speak to him to find out more about this collection, his vision for Ermenegildo Zegna and, well, him.

TED STANSFIELD: “So, first things first, can you tell me about your childhood?”
ALESSANDRO SARTORI: “I grew up in Biella, north Italy, where most of the textile companies are, so it was very natural for me to be surrounded by people working in fashion. And that’s why, as a boy, the thing I loved was sketching and designing silhouettes. I was very passionate about design and, little by little, my interest grew – I sewed my first suit for myself when I was about 15 or 16, though it wasn’t very nice!”

TS: “Why were you surrounded by people working in fashion?”
AS: “My mother was a tailor. When she was cutting the fabrics and preparing the patterns, I wasn’t really into it when I was five years old. I just remember beautiful wedding dresses and coats, but I didn’t get the full process – I got that later. I also remember when I was going with her – mostly on Saturdays – to fabric companies to buy these things. Some of them I still work with today.”

TS: “So you were interested in fashion from a very young age.”
AS: “Yes. I was also crazy about magazines, too. I would buy as many as possible. Every Sunday morning, I would wake up at, like, 8 o’clock to buy Per Lui, which was a very well-known Italian magazine. I would buy other publications, like L’Uomo [which featured] famous photographers doing fantastic things. The big ones, the famous designers [were all] in there. All the people I admired when I was 12-16 who were designing men’s fashion, such as Armani. The first suit I bought was a blue Armani one, which I got for a wedding of a friend.”
TS: “How did you go about making your first suit?”
AS: “I went to a fabric mill to select the fabric, because I wanted to make a double- breasted blue suit. I had designed this and worked around this idea and went to look for a fabric – a solid crepe wool. [The suit] had these beautiful buttons.”

TS: “Can you tell me what you love about suits – why do you think they’re still important as a mode of dress?”
AS: “My aesthetic is the idea of experimental tailoring blended with minimal ideas and classic formalwear or more active wear. I really love the idea of the beautiful craft, where shoulders, collars and the waist – all very important points for men – are very well shaped and sharp. [It’s] the idea of applying [those elements] together. Even in sportswear. I think why not, you know? There is always a beautiful outcome for a track pant or a jogging pant or a bomber. It’s just a question of quality. So it’s more than the suit that I’m still in love with – it’s the idea of tailoring, of beautiful craft and of nice garments, which are made with a very well-balanced fit on the basis of a silhouette.”

TS: “Was there a specific moment you knew you wanted to be a fashion designer?” AS:“I was 16 or 17. I was trying to understand how could it be possible, which school [I could attend]. I knew that fabrics were in my DNA. Many of my friends were training to be fabric designers, but I definitely wanted to work on the aesthetic or the silhouette [of clothes]. I loved the idea of the shape over anything else. I decided that was the job I wanted to do. I didn’t know how or when or where, but I knew it was what I wanted. So I visited a couple of schools when I was about 16 or 17.”

TS: “What other career paths might you have taken?”
AS: “Probably something to do with design, like architecture. But if I wasn’t a designer, I’d still like to work in fashion, probably as a tailor. I like to work with my hands.”

TS: “What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you?”
AS: “One of my friends is a painter and what I really like about him and the work he does, which is a very creative form of painting, is that when he doesn’t like something, he throws it away and starts again from scratch. He always says if you don’t like [what you’ve created], just redo it.”