Since taking the helm as artistic director of Zegna in 2016, Alessandro Sartori has been quietly redefining the modern man’s wardrobe, beginning with the suit. In 2020, he reworked it for a world gripped by the pandemic, creating hybrids that bridged practicality and comfort, introducing a studied louche that still runs through Zegna’s spring-summer 2026 collection, unveiled at Dubai Opera in June.
“To me a suit is a combination of matching top and bottom,” says Sartori. “That could be a classic jacket with classic pants, or a classic jacket with oversized pants – it is a suit.”
Case in point, in Dubai he sent out relaxed Nehru-collar tunics with loose trousers, button-front blouson jackets with pleated trousers and a patterned silk shirt with matching shorts – all crafted with precision and care.
This unified vision underpins everything produced by the Italian house, made “by tailors, using the old rules of slow, careful construction, with specific techniques”, he says.
The same expertise goes into every garment, whether suiting or something casual. “I use the same techniques, the same tailors, the same rules, the same know-how to produce a pair of shorts or a beautiful cashmere blouson.”
Sartori’s history with the brand stretches back to 1989, when he joined Z Zegna. In 2007, as creative director, he presented its first menswear collection in New York. After five years leading Berluti, he returned to Zegna in 2016.
Now nine years into his tenure, Sartori has developed a signature touch that is light, enquiring and intent on redrawing boundaries of excellence. “There is a perception that sportswear should be done faster or with less quality,” he says. “Why? Classic tailoring offers many beautiful finishes and details. This is what we do.”
His creative freedom comes from one extraordinary advantage: Zegna’s vertical integration. The house owns every stage of its production process – from sheep to shop – and Sartori calls it his secret weapon.
“I’m very lucky because the restaurant I cook for has a garden full of everything, and also a grocery and a bakery. We can design fabrics and yarns, giving a huge possibility of many different layers and solutions.” That control, he explains, gives his team rare and precious freedom. “We are able to express ourselves beautifully.”
Zegna fabrics are the stuff of fashion lore. Leather is sliced into strips fine enough to knit, or transformed into a washable version. Silk is spun into suits that weigh barely 300 grams. Linen is mixed with paper and cotton to create entirely new materials. Not every attempt succeeds.
“There are things I would never show, that are impossible to wear or impossible to touch,” Sartori admits. Yet the freedom to try yields results that verge on the sublime. “That waffle weave in paper, linen and cotton? I mean, it’s a revolution.”
Such alchemy takes time. Sartori and his team begin work on each new collection nine months in advance. For the winter 2026 collection, set to debut in January, the process began in March. “By July, the whole studio will be working on the winter season.”
Trials of a new cloth are already under way. “It might not work, but we are trying a new cashmere and paper fabric for winter, replacing linen and cotton and adding cashmere. It’s literally like cooking,” Sartori says with a laugh.
Part of the process lies in balancing fibre weight. Too heavy and the cloth feels mundane; too light and it falls apart. Fibre width is measured in microns (one millionth of a metre). Human hair averages 50–100 microns, while standard wool suiting runs 17–19, cashmere 14–15, and baby cashmere about 13.
Last year, Sartori pushed his team to create something new. “I wanted to create a tension between two completely different fibres. So I said: ‘Let’s go for cashmere and paper.’”
Describing it as a “fantastic idea”, he says, the test now is to make it viable, with paper cellulose spun together with 14-micron cashmere. “If we use a fibre too fine, we will lose the project because it’s too fragile. I am anxious to see it because it would be fantastic.”
Sartori’s skill lies in making such cutting-edge fabrics look effortless. “These creations are very difficult to understand unless you have the know-how, but for customers it’s only important from a perspective of being timeless.”
Just as his suits have evolved, so has Sartori. When he first returned to Zegna, he felt pressured to chase trends, and then the pandemic forced a reset. “In 2020, we decided to change format. I was one of the designers who every season needed to do ‘fashion’.”
He recalibrated, focusing instead on what Zegna already excelled at. “We have decided to be comfortable within our perimeter, and instead of designing outside of that box, we’re going deeper. It’s a different vision. You can design out of your framework, or you can say: ‘I will stay inside it and explore the layers.’ And that is what we did.”
This philosophical shift has brought cohesion. “The 2025 silhouettes will work with the silhouette of 2026, of 2027, and so on, because they are all layers of the same aesthetic.”
That continuity extends to place. Showing in Dubai rather than Milan, Sartori argues, reflects global shifts in how people live post-pandemic. “Monte Carlo used to be seasonal. Now it’s a year-round residence.” The same is true of Dubai. “Years ago, Dubai was about visitors, but now it is about people living here.”
Today, Zegna’s UAE clientele spans India, Italy, the US, Singapore, Turkey and beyond. “It’s one of the most cosmopolitan communities in the world,” Sartori says. “And one of the most discerning.”
At the Villa Zegna event in Dubai, Sartori appeared at three daytime engagements dressed in head-to-toe black – an irony for a designer celebrated for his mastery of colour. “I’m a colourist, I love purple, aubergine and deep green, but if I wear these, I can’t see the colours. To accurately see the colours, you must be neutral.”
Ultimately, it is that discerning eye that drives him. Not headlines, not trends, but the quiet pursuit of something lasting. “Ours is a story that is undeniable, as one of the chicest and most elegant of men’s fashion,” he says. “Others may try and copy us, but they only see the outcome. They don’t know how we got from A to Z, they don’t have the Zegna recipe.”
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