Even when the garments are classic, a lot of the details need to be different today to suit the way that we want to use them. I’m talking about attitude.” Look 47 was case in point to this central thrust of Alessandro Sartori’s ideas this season. The shearling-collared raglan sleeve tweed overcoat worn by John Turturro featured angled pockets cut low enough to almost straighten his arms into. The coat's volume was pumped up by a detachable shearling liner. Worn above a cashmere “shearling” v-neck, two button-up shirts (a styling motif) and a granite-washed double-pleat pant and loafers, it hit the eye as traditional-conservative. Yet on second look, it emanated progressive and slightly professorial swagger.
Sartori was lowering his looks’ center of gravity, imposing lower buttonings and longer jackets. He also gave them extra weight by ramping up lapel sizes and cutting larger fits. Birdseye and Prince of Wales patterns were also enlarged, which further recalibrated your perspective. Pants broke in generous undulations at the ankle, all but obscuring the loafers beneath. Turturro’s v-neck reflected a collection-consistent neckline, cut to mid-sternum, that added further weight to the facade.
An additional twist to perspective was that the models walked like titanic Gullivers across a beautifully landscaped Lilliputian set meant to recreate the grasslands of Australia seen as if via helicopter or Google Earth. It was so lushly turfed that you suspected the pastureland Tasmania, maybe Kempton, was the precise source of inspiration. That set and the screens showing flocks of Aussie Merino sheep in the paddocks were meant to evoke Vellus Aureum, a new Zegna line. This was inspired by the 1963-founded Ermenegildo Zegna Wool Trophy Awards, which each year present the Golden Fleece award to the finest wool of the year—the current record of 9.4 microns dates from 2023. The new Vellus Aureum line is made from lambswool of between 12 and 13 microns—significantly finer than the typical value of cashmere, which runs between 14 and 17. Said Sartori: “I consider Vellus better than cashmere, and for sure, different: with the structure of a wool being like a pineapple tree it is much more durable, and it doesn’t pill.” Having touched one of the pale blousons produced under the new line during our preview, I can attest it feels simultaneously soft and robust.
Other highlights included a notch lapel, low buttoned overcoat in rusty wool/alpaca spazzolino, and some great adaptations of the traditional loden that featured raglan instead of overhanging shoulders alongside the traditionally swooshy box pleat. This, and a leather piped gilet in that blown up check, lent a vaguely Tirolean feel, although Sartori said he’d been thinking more of Turin. The casting intriguingly mixed Gen-Z, Millennials, and Boomers: this worked convincingly to communicate the rich potential of Sartori's collection to fire the desire of menswear connoisseurs from multiple generations.
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