ZEGNA • Summer 2024

New ways of making things create new perspectives, and new perspectives determine other ways to be into the world. Clothing is a prime facilitator of such change. The new ways ZEGNA tirelessly pursues originate in the materiality of fashion-making: a path that starts from the fibers and the fabrics, continues in the shapes, and finally reaches a multiple ending in the uses such shapes entice. Oasi Zegna is the place and the state of mind where it all happens.

 

As the revolving center and the ever-evolving mindset that collects and activates everything ZEGNA stands for, Oasi Zegna represents a quest for excellence and beauty with a responsible commitment that is not static. It travels, in fact: across space and craft, near and far. The show, today, introduces an oasis in Milan, among 192 bales of raw linen that occupy a square in the center of Milano, on a backdrop of historic buildings, in broad daylight. The bales have been transported from Normandie, where linen is grown with its blue flowers that bloom for just a single day in early summer and will re-enter the production chain once the show is over, to be crafted in Italy into Oasi Lino. The dream of nature in a metropolitan context, and the circular values it conveys, becomes tangible. ZEGNA commits to certifying its linen as 100% traceable by 2024.

 

Linen, in the mind of Artistic Director Alessandro Sartori, is as a vector of nimbleness: the perfect complement for the sartorial reset he is pursuing in writing a new paradigm that is fluid, apt for different bodies, crossing different demographics. “At ZEGNA we keep rethinking what an efficient wardrobe should be like today, further delving into the idea of creating a system of elements - tops, bottoms, underpinnings and accessories - that can be combined and self-styled however one prefers. It’s the idea of the uniform that prompts non uniformity. The suit as matching jacket and trousers no longer applies. Today, everything goes with everything, and this frees the customer, who can play with shapes and hues. Lines are deceptively simple: we hide functional elements in the construction, bringing texture to the fore. The overall fluidity makes it all look quiet and luxurious, but the tension in the details, the richness of colors and the freedom infinite combinations suggest is not quiet at all” says Sartori.

 

A sense of soft precision imbues the collection. Volumes are fluid, categories are liquid: deconstructed jackets with low or stand-up collars; airy duster coats; round-neck tops that replace jackets; vests that double as tank tops; bombers that flow into shirts. The sack jackets with ¾ length sleeves introduced last season are reiterated. Trousers

are full; shorts and jumpsuits add a pragmatic feel. Irregular lines run on the exterior of items as well as inside, in the linings, showing up on turn ups, marking the tension of uniform/non-uniform. Undulated stripes draw textural motifs and jacquards. Textured knitwear further accentuates the sense of ease and suppleness. Knitted triangular scarves, knitted caps, soft yet geometric handbags, double glasses, massive soled slip-on shoes cut in one piece of leather and the iconic Triple stitch luxury shoe in its new espadrille evolution finish the looks.

 

Textures adds substance and surface tension: linen gabardine, linen faille, compact linen knit, compact Blue Flower linen, satin linen, linen faille, jute oxford, washi paper, raffia, silk popeline, seta tussa, recycled wool granitè, double-faced wool, tela vela, mohair popeline, linen and bourette silk canvas, hammered nabuk, bonded calf. The palette, worked in scales of similar tones and irregular monochromes, is an amalgamation of neutral hues of calcare, juta, mastice, aral gray, chilled notes of linfa, agave, lichene and petra, warm tones of foliage and ferruggine, and accents of flamingo and Namibia orange.