Mon, January 20 2020 » Fashion Blog
ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA XXX FALL WINTER 2020 MEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK
Art for Earth
#UseTheExisting, for Zegna, is an all-encompassing mindset that starts from fabric and extends to clothing and beyond. Ermenegildo Zegna XXX is the vanguard laboratory where, under the artistic direction of Alessandro Sartori, this plurality of actions coalesces into one multifaceted, ever-evolving whole.
This season, even the show’s scenography uses the existing: an immersive installation, hosted in a former Milanese foundry, has been devised in collaboration with multi-media American artist Anne Patterson and made of thousands of ribbons derived from leftover Zegna fabrics. It consists of a massive suspended cube – a play of colour, matter and light – that looks solid but is actually transparent. Giving the material an immaterial quality, it invites viewers to engage and interact, not only with the eyes.
In this geometric forest of ribbons, the Ermenegildo Zegna XXX Winter 2020 collection materializes. A redefinition of tailoring captures the spirit of the season, as the Zegna sartorial know-how is explored in new, hybrid directions. The silhouette is neat and layered; the sum of the parts and garments is accentuated; ergonomic details such as flaps and patch pockets add a utilitarian slant.
Three-button suits with slightly boxy, one-breast-and-a-half jackets and tapered trousers are worn under puffy blousons; zip-up overshirts with low collar lines replace traditional shirting. The tailored waistcoat makes a comeback, as a passe-partout, with or without the suit. A process of constant morphing defines evolved shapes: wraparound, belted blazers; voluminous coats with deep back pleats; coat/parka fusions; shirts that double as short-sleeved blousons.
Fabrics get more and more experimental, further expanding the #UseTheExisting approach in weaves and mixes of natural with synthetic fibres. Patterns such as moirè, macro check and digitalized landscapes are rendered in print, jacquard and devorè techniques – alone, or mixed – playing with layers and scales. Even plain fabrics like recycled cashmere flannel or Achillfarm, the suiting wool made entirely from the remnants of suit-making, are highly innovative.
Calf leather is laser-patterned, hand-cut and printed, or distresses and tumbled. A special series of hand-woven, intensely tactile textiles has been developed with the San Patrignano community.
Accessories are pragmatic: bold-soled, polished boots and derbies, oversized bum-bags, soft bags. The newest brand icon INSTA-PACK, a functional crossbody bag inspired by photographers’ attitude, features sartorial details and a Zegna vintage logo from 1980 created by the graphic designer Bob Noorda.
The collaboration with Leica, the legendary German high-end manufacturer of cameras and sport optics products, translates into a desirable array of camera bags, holders and straps that is part of a broader dialogue between the two brands and that will further evolve into photographic projects aimed at portraying modern masculinity through women’s eye.
The metamorphic play of textures and shapes is captured by the muted palette of neutral tones of plaster, sand stone, cloudy sky, brown quartz and dark loden highlighted by touches of rose gold, copper, ember red and peacock blue and finished by matte black.
“At Zegna I have the privilege to experiment at every level, from the mix of fibres to the evolved tailoring shapes – says Alessandro Sartori – It is all about reshuffling or hybridizing categories, breaking boundaries in order to explore new territories: this is our new tailoring lexicon. One experimentation leads to the next, in one seamless dialogue, always keeping in mind that our art should always respect the earth. That’s our mission, as both humans and fashion-makers”.
The installation Art for Earth by Anne Patterson will be open to the public until January 31st 2020.
Mon, January 20 2020 » Fashion Blog
Tue, June 18 2019 » Fashion Blog
ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA XXX SPRING SUMMER 2020 MEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK
Ermenegildo Zegna © Copyright 2019
# UseTheExisting
An immense industrial building in despair is the site for the Ermenegildo Zegna XXX show. The runway unfolds below extremely high ceilings that once hosted Area Falck: a monument to steely modernity that over the years slowly turned into a metropolitan wasteland. The dismissed area, however, will soon be re-qualified by Milanosesto into a hub for health and science, along with green and residential areas, gaining a new continuity with the city and a new meaning, reverting from waste to opportunity. As such, it will be included again in the metropolitan fabric, including people within it. It is the same philosophy Zegna is applying to textile resources, with the commitment to continue to create new fabrics from existing ones, and the same drive Zegna applies to re-thinking tailoring for the modern world. #UseTheExisting is the byword.
“It is our duty as denizens of this world to live responsibly - says Zegna’s Artistic Director Alessandro Sartori - I want to do it using the creative means I have at my disposal, which extend from the materiality of fabric-making, to the exquisite technicality of tailoring to the highly communicative aspect of show-making. Everything is connected, and everything conveys the same idea: we do not need to create the new from scratch, but we can reuse and reinvent the existing, getting progressive fabrics out of discarded ones, translating traditional techniques into innovative lifetime tailoring, turning an abandoned place into an area of creation”.
A sharp industrial sensibility comes to the fore this season, channeled by the pragmatic suits composed of blousons, shirts or polo-shirts worn with matching trousers. Sartori sticks to an agenda rooted in tailoring’s essence, morphing tradition into something suited to the pace of a hyper connected, global generation. The silhouette is neat: boxy blousons, voluminous coats, sleek three-button blazers and slim one-button jackets with 3D patch pockets are paired with lean yet soft trousers or fuller ones. Generous pockets migrate from the sportier items onto tailored ones while tailored details move to sport pieces, suggesting a mix of categories that expands the possibilities of use.
Knits are building blocks that increase the modularity of modern dressing. Firm yet extremely light fabrics – wools, technical silks, – enhance the precision of the lines and the weightlessness of the sartorial construction, with flattened crinkles, photoprints of graphic assemblages and progressive stripe patterns giving rhythm to the surfaces. Macro chiné motifs have a painterly feel, mineral dyes add depth to denim.
The #UseTheExisting mindset is a brand’s commitment to use more and more wool and technical fabrics developed by the Zegna textile division with innovative processes from pre-existing sources. The “Achill” suit, entirely made with wool remnants from Zegna’s Achill farm, discarded during the process of suit making and then remixed and rewoven, fully closes the circle of traceability and sustainability. In keeping with the functional mood, accessories are pragmatic: bold-soled printed boots or derbies; signature Claudio sneakers; wearable notebooks and pouches in small geometric shapes.
The sense of industrial elegance is rounded by the mix of mineral hues of cement, steel, carbon and matt black with earthy tones of brass, rust, red blaze, sand and matt gold and light notes of nude, aqua, leaf green, teal and oxidized copper.
Transformation comes to the fore as just another aspect of inclusiveness: a Zegna pillar through and through.
Mon, June 17 2019 » Fashion Blog
