Zegna is built on the ethos of creating clothes that last. It was a principle laid out by Ermenegildo Zegna that has been adopted by his family, one generation after the next, alongside the designers who’ve charged the menswear giant forward. Current artistic director Alessandro Sartori is no exception. Joining the house 10 years ago, he has treated his collections as an on-going dialogue with the the values and codes of the brand’s founder, steering with an elegant design hand intent on creating clothes that balance tradition and modernity.
Opening Milan men’s week, the show took place inside a vast space in which Sartori erected a series of “imaginary closets” lined with the actual clothes of third-generational Zegna family members Paolo Zegna and Gildo Zegna. Gildo, also the brand’s group executive chairman, said the wardrobes represent belongings that “are protected from neglect in order for other members of the family to use them. I am after the sense of wonder that happens when one finds a piece that was owned by one’s father, grandfather, uncle; the discovery that comes from studying other ways of dressing, which prompts a willingness to try something new.”
His AW26 collection was populated by handsome tailoring that could easily be worn by both father and son without ever feeling stuck in a bygone time, or on the flip-slide, looking too young. Blazers came in gentle pinstripes or checks, crafted from Trofeo wool, first utilised by the brand in 1965. Trousers were cut wide and high at the waist, pooling elegantly at the ankle. Throughout, the silhouette was long and loose, particularly in strong outerwear highlights like chocolate brown overcoats with boxy shoulders, or knee-length shearlings. These were the sort of pieces you’d treasure for a lifetime that never loose their appeal. New classics to be discovered and rediscovered, time and time again.
Photography courtesy of Zegna
