There was an architectural mood hanging over Ermenegildo Zegna A/W 19 menswear collection. Showcased yesterday in the transit hall of the monumental Milano Centrale railway station, designed by Ulisse Stacchini and inaugurated in 1931 (in the history of fashion there was another show that took place around Milan Central Station - Moschino's Spring/Summer 1984 collection, for the film "Sotto il vestito niente"), the collection included designs characterised by a clean cut and that were at times made with solid jacquards featuring graphic aerial views of cities and skyscrapers and embroideries of commuters.
Creative Director Alessandro Sartori was fascinated by the idea of the railway station as a place where people are on the move, where they get connected, arrive and leave from, and where they often make new friends, so a place where diversity happens and where stories are written and told.
Though this is almost an obvious explanation for choosing a railway station as the perfect location for a catwalk show, it was a daring statement, especially while Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is endlessly raving against migrants on social media.
So, while Salvini stubbornly rants about closing ports without finding a real solution to the migrant crisis, the station in Milan (and the runway, characterised by a casting in which diversity was emphasised) represented an open world, that same melting pot that the minister hates.
The palette was muted, but reasonable for the Zegna customer and for those men who may be on the lookout for modern clothes but favour comfortable shades such as dark blue, soft grey, khaki and plum.
The mood was relaxed and casual, but definitely not street: fabrics and construction were solid, thick and sculptural (something that worked pretty well with the architetcure of the station, but also evoked sturdy textiles used for train interiors), and at times pointed at uniforms; precise details - minimalist pockets, detachable collars and single closings - reshifted the discourse towards a more streamlined future, while decorative straps and bands around the trouser legs (a detail that may have been borrowed from uniforms) transformed the trousers into jodhpur-style pants.
Accessories featured technical handwoven leather sneakers, boots with double coloured uppers, a modular system of leather-clad cases that can be used to build a more personal case and hats made from a single piece of felt by Biella-based hatmaker Cappellificio Cervo (acquired last year by Zegna).
Apart from the jacquards, the collection included other patterns like checks, abstract letters covered in shiny tape and experimental textiles with suits made with threads of paper, leather and cashmere.
It was once you focused on the textiles that you realised architecture was just one of the themes: if you opened some of the garments you would indeed discover the label "Use the Existing".
The latter referred to the fact that the materials used to make these pieces (30 percent of the collection) were "pre-existing" as they were recycled with innovative processes. Fibres were indeed separated and recombined in another garment.
Sartori hopes the day will come when an item can be returned to the brand that made it and recycled again, while consumers may get a discount in return. This is not a new plan as even high street stores have similar plans in action, but for Zegna it may mean looking back at its past and refocusing on the one thing that it used to do better than other companies – fabrics and textiles. The modernist ideal for the future may be therefore sustainable and not architectural, and that may be a new and more adventurous journey for Zegna (will it also have an impact on Thom Browne as Zegna acquired a majority stake in Thom Browne Inc at the end last August?).
There is also another type of journey that the company will have to embark in pretty soon - dealing with guests in a more serious way and rebalancing gifts: avoiding to give for free too many leather sneakers (albeit in a different combination of colours...) to the front row guests will not hurt the company credibility, but actually restore it. Seeing too many people wearing the same shoes in the front row looked like an extremely contrived effort for a company that is hoping to put quality and textile innovation first.
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