Ermenegildo Zegna Fall Winter 2013 Collection (Runway Details)

Fashion can boast a visionary vein that often plants the seed of change and evolution. And in this era of transition, the Zegna FW 2013 collection imagines for the future a young world immersed in the tides of epochal change. 

A groundbreaking energy pulsates throughout the closet, emerging here and there, from the graphic lines of impeccable pinstripes to the “sportified” accents infused into the more formal garments.

The palette is filled with shades of grey that conjure images of a new industrial revolution: asphalt, steel, cement and granite, brightened up with flashes of white and deep green. Nuances  that the Zegna laboratory, always at the vanguard, declined in fabrics that look to the future and epitomized by the Winter ZegnaSilk, a carded wool worked with the cashmere technology on beaver cloths and enriched with Thirties prints and new mélanges.

The design approach is rational: all that is meaningful from the past, both recent and remote, is revisited to create an elegance luxurious as always but also practical and without trappings.

Classically cut coats, made from feather-light spazzolino, the prized alpaca fabric launched by Agnona in the Seventies, are worn over double-breasted and elongated suits, immaculate shirts with refined collars and matching cummerbunds that raise the waistline.

And still, a formality contaminated by a sportier attitude that brings to life jackets and outerwear with sharp architectural proportions in compact fabrics that display a discreet aggressive side via flashes of metal hardware.

Blouson jackets in silk knit or sheared mink and cropped deerskin anoraks, bonded with wool or spazzolino, are worn loosely as sweatshirts.  The knitwear is sober, favoring turtlenecks, gilets and cardigans with mixes of micro fantasies and sumptuous “granite effect” cashmere bouclé. Garments that are worn over padded fencer bodices in wool, napa and silk, to surprising effect.   

The accessories are ideal for brief trips that are part of the new lifestyle and feature a bold character thanks to compact shaped and the reiteration of the bit in bicolor metal. The solid tapered points shoes  are made with hand polished calfskin just like the bags, an array spanning travel bags, hold-alls and computer bags reinforced by handmade piping and featuring handles and pockets on the inside.  The glasses have transparent frames, a metal soul and smoky lenses.

Images via Homme Mode