Ermenegildo Zegna rethinks and creates its latest collection for Spring/Summer 2020 based on keyword #UsetheExisting. This idea drives Zegna to create new luxury must-haves from the existing fabrics and textile resources, tailored to suit every modern and traditional wardrobe. In its runway showcase, the brand reused an abandoned industrial venue on the outskirts of Milan with high ceilings, black sand ramp platform and industrial props, creating for the onlookers a natural environment.
The luxury label’s philosophy of #UsetheExisting is to employ more discarded wool and technical fabrics in its designs, which are developed in-house by the textile division of Ermenegildo Zegna. Not only does this forward the cause of sustainability but also enables traceability of the materials and resources being used in its collection. One of the pieces from the SS’20 collection, the Achill suit is designed with wool remnants sourced from Zegna’s Achill farm. The wool fabric is remixed and rewoven from the leftovers during the process of making the designer suits.
The overall style of Zegna’s SS’20 conveys industrial sensibilities and displays a spruced-up line of suits, blousons, shirts and polo tees, trousers and complementing accessories. Its silhouettes are a series of boxy blousons, baggy coats, fit blazers and jackets which meet exciting 3D patches and elegant knits.
Teamed very aesthetically, add-ons like bright sunglasses, printed sling pouches, patterned head gears, boots and signature Claudio sneakers keep the functionality of the entire look in balance. For the Italian fashion house, a pragmatic tailoring technique mixed with the style of global consumers defines the whole essence of its SS’20 range.
The fine outlines on the fashionable garments flaunt light fabrics like technical silks and wool whereas the stripes, mineral dyes and the graphical imprints add a sartorial visual appeal to every piece. Colours spread to a mineral palette of steel, carbon, matte blacks, cement greys partnered with earthy hues of rust, brass, reds, matte gold, channeling to lighter tones of nude, aqua, teal and green.
Ermenegildo Zegna’s Artistic Director Alessandro Sartori says, “It is our duty as denizens of this world to live responsibly. 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.” He adds, “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.”
