The brand is built on sartorial tradition, but Alessandro Sartori’s aim with his new collection was clearcut: “Nothing that recalls classic design.”
Milano Centrale is Europe’s largest and grandest railway station. The logistics of staging a fashion show in such a location are formidable, which is why it’s never been tried. That was catnip to Alessandro Sartori, who has said he’s keen to take Ermenegildo Zegna to places in Milan that no one’s ever been, at least in the name of fashion. As an added bonus, the location embodied Sartori’s theme. “It’s a nice moment to talk about openness and inclusivity,” he said before his show. And the world comes together in a railway station. It’s an in-between kind of place where a wildly diverse mob is always on the move, always going somewhere else. That nomadic notion appealed to Sartori’s own peripatetic nature.