Yahoo Finance Material world: Alessandro Sartori takes Zegna's traditions into the 21st century
Alessandro Sartori, the softly-spoken creative director of Ermenegildo Zegna, has been busy in his research and development department again.
That bubbling laboratory must be at capacity by now, because since he began at Zegna (and throughout his previous role at Berluti) he has been fastidious and relentless in his explorations of new fabrications and contemporary renderings of traditional fabrics; leathers woven like mesh, leather inlaid like marquetry and fabrics that appear as one thing yet reveal themselves as another.
For his autumn/winter 2018 collection, he’s been challenging the Zegna fabric technicians in Trivero once more. Oasi is the nature reserve in Piedmonte that Zegna run, a conservation project that - like conglomerates such as Kering and LVMH - points to a new global consciousness in these luxury behemoths. This natural landscape acted as the starting point for a new textile that had been 12 years in development, actually pre-dating Sartori’s time at the house.
Oasi cashmere comprises a special dying process where natural materials such as herbs, vegetables and flowers - as opposed to synthetic chemicals - are used to dye the fabric. Crocuses were transformed into a dazzling cobalt shade, chanterelle mushrooms into a buttery yellow on a coat. Picking through the rails listing the ingredients, was like leafing through Sartori’s very own vegetable patch reborn into the highest strata’s of men’s luxury.
The designer took his cues from the natural world too in the padding and quilting, inspired by the work of landscape photographer Thomas Flechtner who captures snowy landscapes. The set in the imposing Borgonno University was transformed into a iceberg-dotted frosty landscape; that starting point was parlayed into the fragmented dashes across coats and jackets resembling dashes in pristine snow, and in the treatment of a checked mohair suit, which was brushed to soften the pattern like a blanketing of snow over the sharpness of the pattern.
“I was drawn to the idea of something transitional existing for a moment”. Transition is thread throughout Sartori’s work at Zegna (he’s well-aware that no-one needs another black single-breasted blazer). “We created what we call this new '1/2 breasted' jacket, which when buttoned has the effect of a double breasted but with just one discreet button visible, and then unbuttoned it becomes a single breasted”, he says, neatly demonstrating on himself, possibly the best advert for this most modern interpretation of tailoring.
That particular subject - how to make suiting relevant to a consumer that doesn’t adhere to the traditional rules - has been a zealous mission for Sartori, hence his constant unpicking of the threads that comprise a classic blazer and trousers.
“It’s about a different form of dressing, it’s providing something fresh and new”; to that end suits came with interchangeable belts and collars, fluid and dynamic, paired with track pants and solid, chunky boots with Goodyear welting which were despite appearances light as air.
At this nuanced new era for Zegna, nothing is quite as straight forward as it seems.
