Alessandro Sartori has always been somewhat ahead of his time in terms of how he views menswear, and the last 18 months have proved that. The designer, who has since 2016 spearheaded the Italian elder statesman of tailoring, Ermenegildo Zegna, has for years debated how to pick apart the suit and make it anew. One of the side-effects of the pandemic has been the relegation of formality in men’s everyday lives, as suits, shirts and ties are rendered redundant as offices lay empty and social events are off the table. And as we start to (hopefully) emerge, there’s a robust debate afoot on the suit. But that’s old news to Sartori; he was doing it way back when.

Zegna’s show settings have always been talking points; enveloping experiences in abandoned, rubble-strewn steel factory or across the rooftop of its factory in Trivero. Sartori has tried as best as possible to parlay that sensory element into video for the pandemic era, and this time took the audience to a verdant maze in Torino spliced with a brutalist structure in Milan. And it made the clothes, as models wound their way around greenery and urban settings, seem all the more light and fluid.

“It’s about taking the DNA of tailoring, the craft of tailoring, and recreating it totally anew,” said Sartori from Milan via Zoom - the baffling amber restrictions on Italian travel meaning few journalists could make it to the physical shows. Sartori likes to toy with perceptions for a ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ approach to fabrication; a lightweight T-shirt that looked like cotton was in fact specially manipulated wool, crafted at the brand’s incredible R&D operation in the Italian alps, while what appeared to be jacquard on a jacket was in fact yarn taken from Japanese denim.

Sartori has previously crafted a jacket that can be adjusted between single and double-breasted, and true to that sense of experimentation he created, for spring/summer 2022, jackets that could be adjusted in the side to fasten in a more nipped-in or loose-structure way. Oversized shirts and trousers, alongside the softly-softly colour palette of straw, eau de Nil and mushroom, felt effortlessly airy. “I wanted to create a sense of freedom, of comfort, lightness and ease,” said Sartori.

There were no ‘suits’ in the most traditional sense, instead there were soft-fit jackets and trousers in softest blush and seafoam shades, shirt-jacket hybrids with matching trousers in spice-tones and boxy outerwear jackets in lieu of a classic tailored jacket. “We will abandoned the style of the old suit, I think, it’s a different concept now,” said Sartori of his prophetic approach to switching up suiting that has become the biggest conversation in menswear right now.

Playing with form and structure is part of Sartori’s particular alchemy, and this time he created a sleeve which has no seam at the front, allowing a lighter, more fluid movement, as well as a series of sleek kimono jackets that looked fresh and fluid; a clean palette cleanser approach to men’s dressing.

The only downside? That these are clothes to be experienced up close rather than the digital restrictions we have to adhere to while UK travel restrictions apply, to relish in their construction and finer details, built with tactility and touch in mind. The collection was a convincing argument in how men should look at their wardrobes for a new era, and a reminder of Zegna’s exceptional stronghold on craftsmanship. Reason in itself to put Italy on the green list I’d say, Boris.

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