MFWM AW19: Ermenegildo Zegna

ERMENEGILDO Zegna wanted to send a clear message across with his AW19 show: the power of openness. In a society battling for and against closing borders, creative director Alessandro Sartori wants to highlight the power of diversity. Where better than in the grand halls of the Milano Centrale Railway Station to showcase a contemporary metropolitan wardrobe anno 2019.

The AW19 collection is fittingly titled Walks of Life, as it features the Zegna’s take on the cross-generation of customers. Translating this into fashion, Sartori sent men dressed in flattering formal wear down the stairs of the grand hall and happily experimented by fusing different product categories together.

Shirts are boxy and substitute jackets, puffer jackets are tailored and come as coats as well as trousers. But don’t be fooled, the openness and diversity wasn’t reflected in the colour range, limiting itself to hues of browns, greens, blues and deep reds.

The opening look was a sharply tailored suit with a abstract print of a metropolitan scene, followed up by a navy suit with a jacquard pattern, showing off the craft of making prints and patterns.

Outwear is bigger than ever, and transitions from one category to the next. With functional pockets sewn onto boxy blazers, bomber vests having a blazer-collar, and meticulously tailored puffer jackets.

Trousers were cinched in at that ankle with an elastic, or tied around the shin. Sartori wasn’t shy of some print clashing, combining plaid with slogans, or abstract visuals that seamlessly become blurry and seamlessly blend into coordinating trousers. The Glass favourite? The Zegna-take on the suit with a tailored bomber jacket and informal dressy trousers.

Adding a touch of drama, all the models came together for an epic line-up at the top of the station’s stairs, showing us what openness means in the fashion world.

Suits become practical, puffer jackets become trousers and outerwear is tailored, Zegna proves that opposites attract.

by Lupe Baeyens