RUNWAY: Ermenegildo Zegna FW17

Alessandro Sartori has returned to Ermenegildo Zegna after a few years in Paris. His job, however, has changed considerably since he was last at Zegna. He is now the sole creative director of all Zegna's collections, as well as its branding and pretty much every aspect of the Zegna world. A lofty list of duties that not many designers are able to do well. The first collection is, arguably, the most important one for a designer: it sets the tone and vision for where he or she wants to take the label. After showing Z Zegna in Florence, during Pitti Uomo, Sartori aimed to unite the two, separated by name and by price points. In this regarded he succeeded by offering a more luxurious, richly fabricated, and, in our opinion, more succinct collection.

Another one of Sartori's goals with this collection is to try to figure out is where the menswear industry is going. Traditional ways of dressing are quickly fading away. Business casual, and more often than not, casual is how business is done. So how does the world's largest menswear label, one whose entire heritage rests on prim and proper tailored suits, appeal to men who don't wear suits regularly, let alone can afford one in Vicuna or cashmere? Sartori's talents are at work here as well. The collection offered new options: one button, felt, tab closure, mixed media, trousers with a super luxe anorak and more. If any men's label has the wherewithal to create a collection that offers the best suits, sportswear, athletic-minded designs...the best of everything, it is Ermenegildo Zegna and Sartori's eye seems to have been a good decision.