There is a phrase Italian’s use called “La Villeggiatura”. It describes the act of packing your life up and temporarily bringing it with you for a season (usually summer). The idea is that you are on a long holiday, but still surrounded by home comforts. Not only was this the theme of Zegna’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, but it was very much put into practice as the luxurious Italian menswear brand decamped to California for its showcase unveilling.
Staged on the famous Malibu Pier – with a heafty Californian FROW comprising the likes of Rami Malek, Mahershala Ali, Roman Coppola, Scottie Pippen, Paul Dano and Gael Garcia Bernal – Zegna’s SS27 collection was a lesson in laid-back warm weather dressing.
The brand’s longstanding creative director, Alessandro Sartori, framed his latest collection around the idea of long, lazy days in Italy, drenching the collection in the sun-kissed context of the Zegna family’s own holidays in the 1970s.
Much like its iconic setting (complete with wave-riding surfers in the background) the clothes were appropriately easy, breezy and beachy. It continues Zegna’s rich vein of upmarket dressing, but with an off-duty “sorry I didn’t reply to your email, I was away on my yacht” energy.
There was Stripes reminiscent of vintage deck chairs, waterproof materials, summer-weight knits, slip-on moccasins and chic popovers. A closer look at Sartori’s offering reveals his impeccable eye for detail when it comes to tweaks made to classic garments.
Detachable collars on shirts looked louche and bridged the gap between summer formality and ease. Trousers cut so fluidly that they looked wide and close at the same time defied logic. Braided suede bombers and pullovers were unexpected in their materiality.
It’s not easy to make menswear that feels both fresh and comfortingly traditional – wearable, to coin an overused term – but in the past few years Sartori has developed an aesthetic language for Zegna that is entirely unique.
His stand-collar jackets are not groundbreaking in design, and yet, in Sartori’s hands, by way of their superlative fabrication and generous cut, they feel entirely, unmistakably Zegna.
“In this collection, I wanted to express a Zegna take on summer, our vision of leisure dressing as something that’s drenched in a cultivated attitude, in a discerning gaze that’s profoundly Italian,” explained Sartori.
It helps that Sartori has unfettered access to Zegna’s extraordinary fabric manufacturing processes – the brand makes cloth for many of the world’s most prominent luxury houses. That privilege is palpable in the clothes he designs.
“Everything here starts from fabrics, which have texture and pattern, and look endlessly renewed by simply twisting and turning the subtlest elements, even just a thread. Constant evolution is what we strive for.”
And while the Villeggiatura may be a culturally-steeped tradition for Italians, it is on Malibu Pier that saw its evolution into the wider world. And oh, didn’t it feel just right.