Ermenegildo Zegna subtly recomposes the menswear wardrobe

Ermenegildo Zegna opened Milan Fashion Week Men’s on Friday with one of the most successful collections to have come from Alessandro Sartori. Focusing more than ever on fabrics, treatments and manufacturing processes, the Piedmont-based luxury menswear label’s creative director has been able to construct a wardrobe that is simultaneously elegant and wearable, all while remaining ultra-sophisticated.

Zegna opted for a video presentation again this season, taking viewers on a fast-paced journey through a hedge maze and into a little-known Milanese neighbourhood built by Aldo Rossi in the 1960s and 70s. Surrounded by this deserted and imposing architectural scenery, the models, which included a dozen women, marched on until they found their way onto an open plaza in the shadow of Dominique Perrault’s leaning towers, in Rho, on the outskirts of Milan. The video’s conclusion saw the models taking their seats at a long table set up in the waters of a fountain, in order to joyfully toast their newfound freedom.

Without exception, the silhouettes were monochrome, airy and fluid. The clothes, which looked to be as intangible as clouds, floated with ease on the models’ bodies. Long coats and kimono-style jackets, cinched at the waist with a ribbon, billowed almost imperceptibly. Large overshirts accentuated the impression of lightness, not to mention the smooth matte-effect calfskin shirt-jackets which looked to be made of cotton from a distance.

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