Ermenegildo Zegna – Winter 2021 – Dapper Tapper Magazine

Ermenegildo Zegna FW21 - 04 - Dapper Tapper

The fabric of human life is woven by adaptability. What makes humans evolve and progress is the ability to hit the button, when necessary, and do it all over again, in a different way, with a diverse mindset yet keeping a memory, awareness, and progressing. This is one of these moments: a leap forward and outwards that is also a leaning inward, doing away with the barriers, separations, and distinctions that were there before.

A definition of new categories, mirroring the relentless evolving of times, has characterized from day one the path of Artistic Director Alessandro Sartori within the Zegna world: a move away from utter formality, but not from a thoughtful sartorial approach, for another definition of style.

THE (RE)SET that is now being pushed activates a fluid movement that blends the public and the private, the personal space and the public space, and with that one’s clothed persona, indoors and out, like lounging, living and working collide often in one single activity. In this seamless world that keeps taking shape, new style possibilities arise as Zegna (Re)tailors the modern man.

“We all are experiencing a new reality concerned with new needs, which lead us to previously unseen lifestyles and attitudes. It is precisely at a time like this, when everything is under discussion, that we, at Zegna, have decided to (Re)set. We have looked at our roots to (Re)interpret our style codes and (Re)tailor the modern man. Outdoor and indoor come together and a new way of dressing takes hold, where comfort and style blend to create a new aesthetic”

– Alessandro Sartori

The collection follows a seamless pace. A new and varied generation of jersey fabrics takes center stage at Zegna. Shapes are fluid, comfortable, and adaptable. In sync with lifestyles that blend indoors and outdoors, the tropes of stay-at-home dressing – the shawl collars and belted generosity of a robe de chambre, the ease of track pants, and the coziness of hand-cut jersey slippers – reshape the very idea of formality. Archetypal items get new functions in a switch of forms, weights, and materials. Chore coats in cashmere, wrapped as a robe, take up the role of habitual sport codes, hybrid suits are in double cashmere, unreleased groups of knitwear replace shirts, new sweaters made of felted cashmere and knit, or knitted out of leather, are meant as outerwear; trousers and jackets are cut in shearling. Even briefcases, the very epitome of business, are deconstructed.

Ease and personality are the bywords: the reimagined suit, either loose or with a blazer tailored close to the body, is not a uniform, but a way of being oneself. It can be as supple as being cut entirely in knitted cashmere or jacquard and is worn with loose turtlenecks or zip-up tops in place of a shirt. Volumes are relaxed for the dropped shouldered jackets and the shirt jackets matched with full trousers, for the belted coats, the blousons, and the double front jumpers.

The progression is sealed by a chromatic flow that starts with notes of Alpine star white, Autumn foliage beige, Felce green, smoky grey, dense black, forest mud with sudden accents of orange. The overall chromatic solidity is broken by the glitched pied de poule that swarms in optical jacquards, by the diagonal stripes that rhythm full outfits.

The collection was presented in the form of a film. Fluid camera movements and uncontrived passages from inside to outside offer a visual narrative full of sudden surprises and ruptures from one situation to the other. Glimpses of a metropolis and the insides of an ideal building flow smoothly as models cross rooms, paths, and ambiances until THE (RE)SET finally unveils its meta meaning, the set being in fact the theatrical place where the filming happens.