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To understand why an Ermenegildo Zegna Sartoria ready-to-wear men’s suit costs at least $3,100, the answers can be found in Italy’s Trivero region.
This is where you’ll find the Lanificio Zegna, the brand’s wool mill founded in 1910. It churns out about two millionmetres of fabric — made from natural fibres including wool, cashmere and the exquisite vicuna — annually.
Here, an Ermenegildo Zegna suit is made from scratch. The fabric production alone involves 25 stages, comprising anything from fabric dyeing to mending.
The latter stage, for instance, is a job that requires intense concentration. Eagle-eyed women sit at specially angled easel-like tables and scrutinise bolts of fabrics for the tiniest of flaws which are then miraculously repaired by hand. And you thought that your job was tough.
Once the fabrics are deemed perfect, they are transformed into the brand’ssignature suits, some of which are the result of 18 hours of craftsmanship and more than 33,000 hand-sewn stitches.
For the discerning gentleman, there’s the Su Misura (or made to measure) range which is priced from $3,700 for a suit. If even that will not appease your sartorial needs, consider the Vellus Aureum suit, which Ermenegildo Zegna defines as the pinnacle of its tailoring expertise.
With this, you can personalise your suit — right down to the way you want your fabric woven and your name inscribed on the fabric selvage. This way, you won’t lose your suit, which is a wise thing since prices for a two-piece Vellus Aureum creation start from $32,000.
But the family-owned Ermenegildo Zegna group — a rarity in this age of mergers and acquisitions — isn’t only about posh suits. Its Z (say “zee”) Zegna and Zegna Sport collections are designed for the modern fashionista and for the sporty urbanite respectively.
The fabric know-how is still prevalent in these two collections, though. For instance, Zegna Sport gives high performance sportswear brands a run for their money. Knitwear comes with a water-repelling Teflon coating and swimwear is made reversible and in quick-drying fabric.
For Spring-Summer, the “Freeway Jacket” has an LED light system integrated into its collar for night visibility and safety while polo shirts are now produced with a thermo-seams technology which does away with the need for skin-grazing stitches.
The Ermenegildo Zegna and Z Zegna stores will open at ION Orchard in July.
The making of Ermenegildo Zegna fabrics is almost rocket science.
- The Lanificio Ermenegildo Zegna folks work on the cool hills of the Trivero region. But they know what we tropics dwellers want. With the “high performance cool effect” fabric innovation, woollen fabrics in dark shades are given a special treatment that lets them reflect 80 per cent of sunlight. After all, how many guys wear white or pastel suits?
- Can’t decide between the wearability of wool and the look of silk? You can have both with Trofeo 600. This is a woven mix of wool and silk, with the latter lending a natural lustre to the end-product.
- Imagine a parka jacket that can keep you warm or cool you down, depending on the environment you’re in. This is one of the creations in the Upper Casual leisurewear collection. It automatically adapts to the climate and also boasts a stain- and water-resistant finishing.
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