Ermenegildo Zegna A/W 2019 Milan Fashion Week Men's

Scene setting: No-one has filmed the ordered chaos of a busy train station better than Alfred Hitchcock in his 1959 masterpiece North by Northwest. Though the police try to hunt their dashing fugitive from justice, they cannot break through the bustle and tempo all around them. Stations in major cities are vast energetic spaces. Paths cross, glances exchanged, routines played out. Now the grand foyer of Milano Centrale station became the stage for Alessandro Sartori’s autumn/winter 2019 show at Ermenegildo Zegna. Bureau Betak dressed it in large LED columns, onto which the endless scrolling of numbers – train timetables lost in translation – trickled up and down as the models walked. For a moment, we joined the 330,000 people who pass through the station every day.
Mood board: The collection of tailored pieces, confident outerwear and hardy, detail-laden boots were inspired by life in perpetual motion. ‘Borders keep being narrowed throughout the world. I felt the urge to advocate the power of openness and multiplicity,’ Sartori said. This multiplicity played out in a hybridized composition of sartorial codes. Cargo pants in smart wools had straps around the calves, reminiscent of a cyclist on the move; the wide lapels of classic men’s coats were grown onto short, cropped blousons. Storm cuffs poked out from the hem of smart trousers. Standout was a metallic jacquard with a repeat illustrated pattern of commuters reading the papers, cut into a lean suit.
Finishing touches: The company’s classic Cesare sneaker was worn in many variations and was available online for customization after the show. The high-top leather style with mesh inserts and XXX logo can be created in diverse ways. Sartori’s cross-generational, metropolitan vision goes from head-to-toe.
Ermenegildo Zegna A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Ermenegildo Zegna A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Ermenegildo Zegna A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Ermenegildo Zegna A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
'You can feel their presence': step inside the Eames' Pacific Palisades residence
Charles and Ray Eames’ descendants are exploring new ways to preserve the designers’ legacy, as the couple’s masterpiece Pacific Palisades residence reopens following the recent LA fires
-
The great American museum boom
Nine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
‘Changing Fashion’: a new exhibition explores how photographer David Bailey reshaped style
‘David Bailey’s Changing Fashion’ at the Marta Ortega Pérez (MOP) Foundation in A Coruña, Spain is a wide-ranging retrospective of the British photographer’s fashion oeuvre. Here, his son Fenton Bailey tells Wallpaper* more
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear season
Between the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Let there be light: a closer look at Prada’s stripped-back S/S 2026 show set
‘This is the first time the Fondazione is completely bare, with the light coming in,’ said Raf Simons backstage at Prada’s ‘light, fresh, colourful’ and ‘human’ S/S 2026 men’s show in Milan
-
The standout shows of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: Prada to Dunhill
Wallpaper* picks the very best of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026, from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ ‘light, fresh’ and ‘human’ display to Dunhill’s exploration of English dress codes
-
Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: live updates from the Wallpaper* team
From 20-23 June, Milan Fashion Week Men’s arrives in the Italian fashion capital. Follow along for a first look at the shows, presentations and other fashion happenings, as seen by the Wallpaper* editors
-
What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026
As Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026 begins in Florence, the Wallpaper* style team select the moments they will be looking out for – from Jonathan Anderson’s anticipated Dior debut to outings from Wales Bonner, Kiko Kostadinov and Prada
-
For its latest runway show, Zegna creates a serene oasis in Dubai
The Italian fashion house took over the Dubai Opera for a S/S 2026 show that proposed a lived-in elegance, drawing inspiration from Dubai’s sunbaked landscapes and Zegna’s birthplace of Trivero
-
Milan exhibition celebrates 20 years of Armani Privé: ‘Haute couture is fashion when it becomes art’
Hosted at the Tadao Ando-designed Armani/Silos, ‘Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025, Twenty Years of Haute Couture’ displays an expansive collection of the Italian designer’s showstopping haute couture creations