THE JOURNAL
If there is a single garment whose fate encapsulates the menswear trends of the last 10 years, it is the suit. Just a decade ago, a navy suit was considered the cornerstone of the male wardrobe. Today, the rules of formality have relaxed to such an extent that an increasingly large number of men are choosing an updated style even for formal occasions.
While many will see the transformation of traditional formal attire as little more than a curiosity, to brands such as Ermenegildo Zegna, which has built a global recognisability on its supremely tailored style, it represents a true evolution. And it’s one that the events of the last two years have thrown into even sharper focus.
The Covid-19 pandemic turbocharged trends in business attire, forcing us all to ditch our suits in favour of sweatpants and loungewear as we adjusted to the realities of working from home. In a matter of months, what was once a cloud looming on the horizon became a very present change.
Another brand in Ermenegildo Zegna’s position might have stuck to its guns. Fashion, after all, has a way of repeating itself. Who’s to say that the suit won’t stage a miraculous comeback? What’s more, despite seeing a drop in sales as a result of the pandemic – an experience mirrored near-universally across the industry – Ermenegildo Zegna Group remained in rude health, with the recent announcement of its intention to go public on the New York Stock Exchange by the end of the year.
But Zegna didn’t stick to its guns. Instead, in an ambitious and forward-thinking move for a company of its size, it decided to hit the reset button. In fact, it even went so far as to call this autumn’s collection “The (Re)set”: (Re)tailoring the modern man”. It’s a chance for Ermenegildo Zegna to rethink and to do things differently, and an acknowledgement on its part that the world as we know it has changed and that we must now change with it.
It would be easy for a casual observer to characterise this all as blue-sky thinking, but the fact of the matter is that Zegna has been heading in this direction since long before the pandemic took hold. Spurred on by the efforts of Mr Alessandro Sartori, the brand’s artistic director since 2016, the brand has spent the past five years reinterpreting and recontextualising its own sartorial codes to define a softer, more fluid form of menswear.
Nonetheless, the pandemic was a watershed moment. “We all are experiencing a new reality concerned with new needs, which lead us to previously unseen lifestyles and attitudes,” Sartori explains. “It is precisely at a time like this, when everything is under discussion, that we, at Zegna, have decided to reset.”
In practical terms, this equates to a full reconfiguration of the male wardrobe to align with a modern, post-Covid lifestyle. It means breaking down the barriers that have traditionally kept the various areas of our lives apart – inside and outside, living and working, weekday and weekend – to create a seamless world where comfort and style are no longer mutually exclusive qualities but are free to coexist.
This liberation from the domination of dress codes manifests in hybrid garments such as the brand’s robe-like belted overcoats. Closer in form to a dressing gown than a traditional coat, they reflect the priorities of stay-at-home dressing but with tailoring-inspired details that lend them a sartorial elegance, offering up a persuasive vision for the future of menswear, one where it’s possible to have the best of both worlds.
It should also be stressed that while this new collection represents a radical resetting of priorities from Zegna, the aim was never to wipe the slate clean. The brand is keen to point out that it retains a memory and a thoughtful sartorial sensibility – not to mention, of course, its network of world-class manufacturers. And many of its new-season garments arrive to us as echoes of long-standing menswear archetypes.
The polo shirt, which, along with the suit, has been one of Zegna’s canonical pieces for many years, is reinvented in felted wool, giving it the comfort of a sweater and the warmth of a piece of outerwear. As for suits, they too have taken on new forms consistent with the requirements of modern life. Softer and more relaxed in silhouette, with dropped shoulders and in fabrics such as knitted cashmere, these new suits are designed to be worn loosely over rollnecks or zipped tops: less a uniform, then, and more an everyday staple.
What to make of it all, then, this so-called (Re)set? It’s a bold vision, for sure. At a time when businesses around the world are clinging desperately to old ways that seem less relevant and more irretrievable with every passing day, it’s refreshing to see a company of Zegna’s size and stature look to the future. What makes it all the more compelling is that it’s a vision of the future that we can recognise: one where the traditional codes of tailoring live on, albeit in a radically reimagined form.