Zegna closes Milan Week in style with a celebration of linen and nature

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Jun 20, 2023

Milan Fashion Week could not have ended better. Zegna's impressive show took place outdoors on Monday, under blue skies, a stone's throw from the famous La Scala theatre. Creative director Alessandro Sartori took purity to the extreme, focusing on natural materials, particularly linen. Earlier in the morning, Indian designer Dhruv Kapoor opened the final day with a collection in a radically different style, featuring embroidery and bright colours.
 

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For its fashion show, Zegna transformed Piazza San Fedele, near to Palazzo Marino, which houses Milan's municipal government, into a rural landscape with 192 bales of flax sourced directly from Normandy, where "the best linen in the world is produced", according to the directors of the Piedmont-based textile group. These bales of flax are destined to return to the factory to be transformed into the yarn from which most of the garments in the Spring/Summer 2024 collection have been made.
 
From white to ebony black, through all the shades of sand and earth, to greys, army greens and fresh pastels (mint, old rose, tangerine), Alessandro Sartori has reinvented the rainbow with strictly natural colours. Within this framework, he has created looks in which everything blends together gracefully. "For me, the new way of dressing is the possibility of combining interchangeable pieces that go well together, from head to toe. Shorts can be paired with jackets, classic trousers with outerwear, and so on," he says.

The looks, all monochrome, gave an impression of innate ease and elegance. Nothing was overdone, and yet the clothes fell perfectly. Loose-fitting trousers were fluid. Shorts were wide. Unstructured jackets were often collarless. Some had shortened sleeves. Airy silk shirts floated down the back. Clean-edged leather jackets were so light that from a distance they looked like cotton.

More than ever, the creative director seems to have striven to lighten, remove, eliminate. "Less is more", to use the words of the rationalist German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Everything has been designed to create essential fashion. Right down to the smallest detail. Like the almost invisible patch pockets. The press studs and zips hidden by the fabric, depriving the garments of conspicuous buttons. And even belts on trousers, which have been mostly incorporated into the waistband.

 
"It's a very conceptual collection in terms of spirit, but in fact simple in terms of design. It's new shapes with simple pieces that conceal a great deal of technical construction", the designer summed up at the end of the show, highlighting the extensive research carried out on the treatment of the different materials.
 
This collection was made from 70% linen, produced within the Ermenegildo Zegna Group's supply chain. "These are materials that have been treated, reviewed, revisited, desired and prepared according to certain criteria. Even the leather is natural, in the sense that it is vegetable tanned, and is not lined with glues or other adhesive products, but with linen instead", explains Alessandro Sartori, reminding us that "the linen we are talking about today has nothing to do with the fibre we knew in the past. It is completely traceable."

The exuberance of Dhruv Kapoor

Dhruv Kapoor's designs have changed, with a new colourful collection that is evolving towards a more refined style. He is still designing strong, richly decorated pieces combining embroidery, prints and playful slogans that have made him such a success. But he is mixing them cleverly with basics, designed for everyday wear.

A maxi tuxedo jacket embellished with suns embroidered in silver rods was paired with a tracksuit jacket, and also came in a short sleeves, all black version without any embellishments. A large sweatshirt in royal blue jersey with large embroidered flowers encrusted with pearls was worn over a simple tank top and denim shorts. Pop-patterned shirts and trousers, were also offered in monochrome versions, while knitwear made its debut in the label's waredrobe with jacquard cardigans and jumpers.

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"There is a great balance between an everyday waredrobe and a more glamorous one. Many of the embellishments and pieces are removable or designed to be combined in different ways. For example, the pleated skirt over the trousers can be removed. Cargos can be transformed into shorts thanks to zips. Even proportions can be mixed. In the same look, you can play with a loose garment and a tighter one", explains the Indian designer, who joined the Milanese calendar in January 2021, where he shows mixed collections for men and women.
 
He admits backstage that he wanted to reduce the prints, "even though it was hard." The collection still features a lot of them, from pop to floral and surrealist motifs, alternating with more sober looks. Nevertheless, Dhruv Kapoor remains very focused on embroidery. This traditional skill from his home country is his signature and favourite style. In fact, his embroidered clothes are among his best-sellers.
 
Having chosen fantasy, dreams and emotions as his theme for this season, Dhruv Kapoor could hardly completely turn to minimalism, as illustrated by the final looks of his collection, which included a suit covered in sequins in shades of red and mauve, and a bright red maxi coat with a black collar studded with crystals.