Top notch Merino and Torino chic

Few designers are reinventing the menswear as skillfully and innovatively as Alessandro Sartori, who staged an excellent show on Monday afternoon, riffing on top-notch Torino chic.
 

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Staged inside a mammoth art installation, this Zegna show brought down the curtains on the four-day Milan menswear season. A season which, though it contained relatively few shows – a bare dozen – still packed plenty of fashionable punch.
 
Nowhere more so than at Zegna, where the heart of the collection was a remarkable new series of fabrics based called “Vellus Aureum,” a super-fine thread made of the finest wool of 100% traceable, eco-friendly Australian Merino sheep. Vellus Aureum refers to the mythical “Golden Fleece” that Jason and the Argonauts sought of their legendary quest, known as far back as Homer.

In first-rate fabric fabrications, Zegna developed four key materials from Vellus Aureum – jersey, flannel, beaver and panno militare, Italian for Melton wool. 
 
All featuring a remarkable new hand, smooth yet sturdy. And in the case of the jersey, surprisingly stretchy, without containing any artificial fibers.
 
Sartori, who has led the move to towards greater volume in menswear, continues to experiment. His subtle new shapes with lower waist, dropped pockets, wide pants and reverse pleats all made for clothes that looked very, very today.  Adding a dash of class with references to gentlemanly creatives from Torino in the 70s and 80s.

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Several classy houndstooth check seemed made of patchwork, within various patterns, but on closer inspection were made of single pieces of fabric woven rather amazingly.
 
He cut some great new coats, slicing pockets diagonally and raising collars cathedral high, adding a raffish mood. Plus, he dreamed up some beautiful new cashmere tweed jackets, either in cool checks or stony soil Donegal tweedy – both with bright flecks.
 
Sartori’s set was also suitably grand – 2,000 square meters of Australian prairie with small rolling hills, just like where Merino sheep range in New South Wales. Huge cinematic screens were hung horizontally projecting black-and-white film of thousands of Merino grazing, to the amped up sound of bleating. In a sense, Alessandro is today’s Jason in menswear – permanently on a quest for the golden mean, the ideal proportion, the yet-to-be-invented material.
 
“Only one word for that – bucolic!” enthused CEO Gildo Zegna, clearly delighted by the show and the fashion.

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Sartori’s wide ranging skills were also reflected in the wide-ranging cast and front row. On the prairie runway, actor John Turturro modelled, looking faintly bewildered by all the attention, joining veteran French model Alain Gossuin. Seated among stars, Zegna ambassador Mads Mikkelsen, and master thespian Giancarlo Esposito. Unlike the buttoned-up shirt and tie criminal Gus Fring in his most famous role in “Breaking Bad,” Esposito looked suitably dandy in a pale slate matching jerkin, gilet and pants.
 
Asked how he felt about attending his first fashion show, Giancarlo replied: “I loved it. Now, I want to go shopping for more clothes!”