The beauty of polar opposites at Zegna's Fall 2011 Collection
Going for a Wong Kar-Wai reference might spoil the quiet grandiose air of Ermenegildo Zegna, but it's inevitable not to spot the magic of the Chinese film in this Italian luxury label's latest collection (and this I arrive at before reading Tim Blanks' notes) . So it turns out that it is indeed In The Mood For Love's music that turned up the mood for this collection and would you ever blame the people at Zegna for falling in love with the film and the promise of China?
The colors gave hints of the romance---it seems Milan's going all saccharine on us, and have indeed reminded me so much of the touching tones in In The Mood For Love: warm hues like a silky orange, bronze, brick red, camel and deep brown, of course the undying black and charcoal gray and a handsome Chinese red and gold, all melting into a solid collection that has a timeless fall wearability to it. While the looks are created in a story of a sequence, the colors play up to it perfectly, making sure that one knows where and when in the story our Zegna man wears certain clothes in certain tones.
But the most charming bits of the collection are the tiny quirks such as belts fastened with handsome leather pouches as these were humbled by well-tailored trousers, knit cardigans and suits. And they did their jobs well at highlighting the "explorer" in the new Zegna man, one who's willing to sail the world for romantic pursuits and epic discoveries.
As the mood progresses, so do the looks, aging into after 7 wearable affairs where ornate suits in Chinese hues decorated with shawls or crisp bow ties treaded the spacious walkway. The materials are most definitely rich for visual and sensual pleasure and it gets Zegna a hundred points for being able to cohesively build the look from day wear elegance to night appropriate choices that are just as pristine.
The meeting of East and West provide for a sweet, historical romance that knowledgeable and sentimental men will find most delicious about this collection...Its warm, moving and tasteful renderings by way of a collection of beautifully made clothes are very much masculine in their own rights. And even if it is referencing the past, the present could definitely use a little refinement and education in World History. The Western traveler landing his first Chinese province in Zegna and leaving the Orient wearing the same duds, only this time bearing the magic of Asia's most powerful nation to date...That's a love story worth a place in the classics.
-Gerard
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