UNCHARTED TERRITORIES

Alessandro Sartori of Ermenegildo Zegna and Fear of God founder Jerry Lorenzo have combined their talents to shape a new direction for modern menswear.

Jerry Lorenzo and Alessandro Sartori set out a new menswear lexicon

At first sight, you wouldn’t think that Zegna’s artistic director Alessandro Sartori and Fear of God founder Jerry Lorenzo had much in common. And yet, having joined forces in an unexpected collaboration they have ended up tracing a new map for the modern man. Blending Zegna’s impeccable Italian tailoring with FoG’s luxury leisurewear in a fascinating act of fashion cross-pollination, the result is, as the two creatives put it, “more than just one plus one”.

Sartori grew up in Biella, in Italy’s Piedmont region, and developed a fascination for ’40s elegance as he saw it in photo books at home – what he calls “his personal heaven” – and by spending time in his mother’s atelier. Lorenzo, on the other hand, grew up across the USA following his baseball player father, and acquired a passion for sports culture that soon led him to appreciate the power of fashion: “It provided me with the tool, as a man of colour, to be seen as equal when walking in a room.”

This collaboration came as a surprise to both of your respective followings. How did it happen, and before would either of you ever have imagined such a partnership?

Alessandro Sartori: I liked Jerry’s work long before meeting him. It surprised me how he was able to put together that kind of aesthetic, paving it with such a sophisticated colour palette, style and proportions. But did I have in mind to do something with him at that time? No. It only happened later, when a mutual friend suggested we should meet over a coffee in Milan, and we immediately clicked.

Jerry Lorenzo: I can’t say I would have imagined it either, but I immediately saw the opportunity of doing, the two of us together, something really new to the market – given that between what Alessandro does and what I do there is definitely a gap. What exactly did you think the market was missing?

JL: A tailoring collection made at the highest level that was not intimidating.

AS: What’s interesting about this collaboration is that you wear tailoring without the rigidity of wearing tailoring. In other words, the full tailoring concept has been translated into a different world which speaks of “ease”, leisure and chic, but with a sportswear attitude.

JL: It’s in fact a totally new grammar, a new language for the modern man. The product is very straightforward but there’s clearly a rich underlying philosophy that reflects on the issue of masculinity. What values are associated with masculinity today?

JL: It comes down to honesty. It’s

empathy and understanding for other people and the way they want to live; not necessarily leading to control, but leading through serving. The fact that we showed women in the campaign means that we have created a men’s collection with a woman in mind, because masculinity is having everyone in mind. It’s about caring and taking on the responsibility. It’s about creating an environment that makes everyone feel good, and Alessandro could also speak of the sustainability in the process of making garments that last season after season.

AS: I agree, and I can only add one thing. In many decades of fashion advertising, we have been watching only a certain type of macho man, whether he’s defined by the car or the girl nearby – but they’re all icons of a stereotype. At Zegna, as a company, we make honesty and a natural approach our pillars. And to me it consequently means that masculinity is being who you are – including being able to show your fragilities without any fear.

In fact, you can sense a dose of softness in the collection, which appeals to the female world, too.

JL: With Fear of God, I’ve been including women in the campaign since the very beginning. I appreciate that feeling of masculine proportions and shapes on a woman’s body, like when my wife steps into my blazer. And when we started this conversation, it turned out that women had been shopping Zegna for a lot of time, so we thought it was important that they could see themselves in it. Obviously, we didn’t want to do a genderless collection. When you try to fall in the middle, you land in a grey area where shape and proportion doesn’t fit anyone.

The concept of sizes is new as well, isn’t it?

AS: We do have sizes, but they’re not as narrow to the body as normal sizes are. In this way, the feeling I’m conveying is freer, fresher and less classic. Why? Because the proportions between the shoulder and the size, between the sleeves and the body, the collar and the lapel, the crotch and the full pant are different. Instead of using the normal chart, we redesigned the silhouette with a fuller approach, but without being baggy. This creates a more interesting dynamic. Or let’s put it this way: wearing the suit jacket, I now feel like I’m wearing a piece of outerwear or a beautiful hoody, but it’s a tailor-made blazer.

So the result is more individual?

AS: Yes, more personal. You can wear it as you want, blending it into your own personality. Whereas if you wear a classic, more conservative blazer, you have that fit and that feeling and that’s it – just like you were wearing a piece of armour.

What’s the principle?

AS: Jerry and I are both intrigued by that feeling of garments being passed down from one generation to another – think of boys in their older siblings’ coats or jackets looking perfect in clothes that are slightly loose.

JL: We were looking at a lot of reference images, pictures from the ’80s and ’90s as well as the ’40s, where it was the individual who brought the sophistication to the garment and made it cool. So, the question was: how do we recreate that? Alessandro, who is a master tailor, knows exactly how to get that effect. Every detail, every nuance has been highly considered.

AS: Very true. Today, if you are size 50 and you wear a 52, with the intention of getting an oversize look, you just look wrong. That’s maybe because being extra-sized is only for the body, but the length of the sleeves doesn’t work. Honestly, Jerry, you know what my problem is now? I wear the result of our collaboration and I can’t wear the other stuff I have. JL: I am happy to hear that. I can’t go back either, Alessandro. And you know, it was such a pleasure seeing my father walking in the showroom and realising that everything was working on him, as it was on me. Although with a younger mentality, the collection embodies Zegna’s values of refinement and quality. And to me, a self-taught designer, it felt like being a kid in the candy store with you being my Willy Wonka!

Well, I guess there will be a chapter two.

JL: Yes!

AS: Our conversation is just beginning.

What do you think is the biggest thing you have in common?

AS: Apart from the fact we wear all black everyday and we have similar tastes in music, seriously, we are not selfish. We embarked on this project without our egos ever surpassing one another, with the aim of creating a unique new wardrobe that is a synthesis of our two souls, in order to serve our customers. What we did was never, by any means, a marketing project. We were totally on a blank page just enjoying this authentic conversation. JL: Well, as humble as we might be, we are convinced that the gift that God gave us is the way in which we see the world. We weren’t trying to leverage each other; the collaboration is the meeting of two individuals happy with where they were. This is not to say that expectations were low, but this gave us the chance to be really honest in what we were doing. Honest and free.