Ermenegildo Zegna Men’s Spring 2020
“Using the existing”: Expert location scout Alessandro Sartori — whose past show venues have included Palazzo Mondadori and the Milano Centrale railway station — chose a metropolitan wasteland once home to Area Falck, Europe’s largest steel production plant, as the showcase for Ermenegildo Zegna’s luxe spin on the waste-not-want-not ethos.
Stretching through the rubble under a monumental disused structure, the black runway composed of recycled gravel contrasted with the collection’s cold and warm palette spanning masculine pastels like watery and petrol blues and colors based on the organic idea of metal changing colors as it’s transformed, including brass, a creamy rust, sand, matte gold and browns.
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“This was the long line where they were transforming the metals,” said the designer during a preview. He was dressed in a sleek, sharp black suit from the collection with curved, sporty, new-gen pockets, made from recycled Achill entirely made with wool remnants from Zegna’s Achill farm, discarded during the process of suit making and then remixed and rewoven. The house is moving towards integrating more upcycled fabrics into its collections, he said.
A short-sleeved blouson in a dark rust shade worn with a matching tailored pant offered a new proposal for a summer uniform, with the season’s fits moving between a skinny pant worn short paired with an oversized parka, say, to a voluminous and long pant paired with a narrow, petite jacket.
The allure of the tailoring, especially the creased suits with their drop collars and crumpled softness, worn with caps and glasses, and faded items like a bleached pink denim blouson, had an Italian flavor. An Eighties-style shiny black leather blouson — there was a lot of shine — worn over a slim shiny tailored pant telegraphed Italian gangster. More classical in mood was a silhouette pairing a shirt in broken stripes with a taupe suit in brushed wool with patch pockets and baggy pant, accessorized with a cross-body printed bag.
The crinkled lines created through pleating and folding techniques resurfaced on a single-button jacket in a print based on a photograph of a pleated striped shirt, and an oversized dusty pink striped parka made from regenerated fibers, with this idea of “creating something new with the memory of something that already exists.”
A great coat in a kaleidoscopic patchwork of broken stripes resembling lining fabric echoed the industrial structure, one of the highlights of this compelling collection that underscored the urgent need to find new design solutions.
Launch Gallery: Ermenegildo Zegna Men's Spring 2020
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