Z ZEGNA SPRING 2011 MENSWEAR

JANIS

Following the Ermenegildo Zegna show at La Triennale, the curtains parted to reveal greenery, and cloth covering the glass ceiling was pulled back to reveal sky, instantly changing the atmosphere for the Z Zegnahalf of the presentation. Letting nature in was an apt introduction to a collection that made much of the natural in its color palette (chalk, slate, basalt, terra-cotta) and fabrics (cotton, linen, silk, mohair), and maybe even in its attention to outerwear—you're going to wear a parka outside, aren't you?

NILS BUTLER (WHY NOT MANAGEMENT)

There's something organic about the way Z Zegna has evolved from a technical experiment into something much more genial and human under the stewardship of Alessandro Sartori.

DENNIS

There was still an extraordinary amount of fabric technology in the clothes today (hybridizing different weights and textures of cloth, for instance, or layering super-light fabrics to create a 3-D effect with print), but what was most striking was their folksiness. They all looked well lived in, the jackets slightly roomy, the trousers slim but slouchy. Or maybe it was that terra-cotta with its muddy warmth.

COREY BAPTISTE (D`MANAGEMENT)

BORYS

LEO

ARTHUR

JAMES HAMPSON (FASHION)

ANDRE BENTZER (ELITE)

MELKER

VLADIMIR IVANOV (ELITE)

OSCAR SPENDRUP (ELITE)

DOMINIC

FABIAN

GERHARD FREIDL (I LOVE MODELS)

MARTIN LANDGREVE

CHRIS PULLIAM (FASHION)

ROBIN

TOM P

WENCESLAS

WILLIAM EUSTACE (ELITE)

SEAN HARJU (I LOVE MODELS)

ARAM GEVORGYAN (I LOVE MODELS)

FELIX SCHOPGENS (ELITE)

ROBERT RAE (FASHION)

JEREMY YOUNG (FASHION)

TIM

CLEMENT

JAMIE CONDAY

BORYS STAROSZ (I LOVE MODELS)

THIAGO SANTOS

NICOLAS RIPOLL (WHY NOT MODEL)

HENRIK

ANTHONY MURREL

PAVEL

TOM LANDER

JOHANNES LINDER

THOMAS HOEFNAGELS (ELITE)

DANNY ARTER (FASHION)

JULIAN HENNIG (D`MANAGEMENT)

MALTE

SAM

JAMES SMITH (FASHION)

ADNAN DJINOVIC (FORD)

LINUS GUSTIN (FASHION)

ALESSANDRO SARTORI

Z Zegna Spring 2010 Men´s.

The elongated jacket with its severely suppressed waist, the pinstriped trousers, the two-tone buttoned boot…the top hat! Why, it was almost as if Alfred, Lord Douglas—Oscar Wilde's bad and beautiful Bosie—was walking the world again.

Alessandro Sartori wanted the echo of the past to be that strong, but only so he could subvert it and drag it into the future. His latest collection for Z Zegna imagined an Edwardian dandy in a concrete and steel underworld. It was a daring proposition, because it constantly teetered just this side of costume.

But the tailcoats were raw-edged, the prints were lifted straight off the graffiti on Milanese walls, and jackets were doubled ("giacca doppia") so there was no shirt needed. Hardly the stuff of a gentleman's wardrobe.

Zegna has unparalleled fabric research facilities, so Sartori was able to perform alchemy with, for instance, black leather, which was splintered into a jacket of perforated petals.

The lustrous mauve of a huge coat spoke untold volumes about dyeing processes. But other flourishes, like the long scarves created from jacket lapels, were the designer's alone (with a nod to Neil Barrett's forensic dissection of sartorial elements last season).

Even the simplest outfits—say, double-pleated dove-gray leather pants paired with a sheer stock tie shirt—were enough of a challenge to make one wonder where the client would be for such outré elegance.

But there was a bravery in Sartori's implicit conviction that elegance would win the day—in a world where there is precious little.

Thiago Santos (Bananas)

Thiago Santos (Bananas)