Style & Beauty Lookbook
Style & Beauty Lookbook Breezy shorts alongside a smart jacket, as seen in Zegna’s spring/ summer 2021 collection IN CONVERSATION Alessandro Sartori, artistic director of Ermenegildo Zegna explains how the heritageimbued Italian tailoring house has reinvented the sportswear world How do you marry the two worlds of suiting and casualwear? A lot of it is about technique and construction. We explore new materials to evolve a different interpretation of ‘sportswear’. Classic shirts might be replaced with sweaters, rigid trousers with easier silhouettes and tops that function as hybrid items. This is all done with our tailoring eye, our sartorial touch, to elevate the concept. What’s informed this shift in how men dress? It’s about a new attitude; we don’t compartmentalise our lives any more. We’re at the gym, we’re travelling, we’re meeting friends, we’re at work, and our wardrobes have to reflect the diverse nature of life today. Men used to be very rigid in terms of uniform, but now they are much more open to self-expression – a shirt, blazer and tie is no longer the standard. How will this evolve into the future? After 2020, I think there will be more of an appreciation of softness and ease. That doesn’t mean dressing down in sweatpants, but working that approach into the clothes you wear outside: a single-breasted blazer, for example, in a light technical fabric that can travel with ease. I think it will prompt the fashion industry to explore new materials and their potential. zegna.com has become one of the fastest-growing industries of the last few years and – pre-pandemic – gym memberships had steadily risen year on year. And while it would be premature to sound the death knell of traditional suiting (and forecasters predict a boom in formalwear once the pandemic is over and we return to office life and our busy social calendars), it’s certainly accurate that “dress up” is no longer what it was. The full paraphernalia of suit, tie and collar stays – but pocket squares and cufflinks seem almost quaint in a time when a man is more likely to be scootering to his WeWork than sitting behind a mahogany desk like a captain of industry. Instead, casualwear has become king, and in the making, the pieces that we thought of as “basic” – track tops, hoodies, trainers etc – have been elevated and incorporated into our daily wardrobe like never before. • 40 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
REPLACE W/BERLUTI AND DUNHILL – images forthcoming From left: Tod’s No Code high-tops in white leather; Italian-leather Aerial Runner trainers by Dunhill; Berluti Fast Track leather sneaker in Venezia calf leather BACKPACK OR BUST This season, fashion elevates the backpack to new heights Best Foot Forward When is a pair of trainers acceptable with a suit? When they take the codes of serious sartorialism and apply them to sporty footwear. In blurring the lines between formality and off-duty, a host of brands have played with the formula of the trainer, taking it far from track and field to be more boardroom-to-bar appropriate. The front runner (pun intended) in this was Italian house Tod’s (tods.com), which introduced the Shoeker hybrid (that’s a shoe-meet-sneaker) in 2018. Today, the No Code for spring marries the two worlds, with the same leather and handcraft of the brand’s formal shoes applied to a lightweight, pliable trainer, made by artisans in Le Marche. Putting its best foot forward into this arena is Berluti (berluti.com), which has created leather trainers in rich patinas, engraved with its signature “Scritto” calligraphy, while time-honoured British house Dunhill (dunhill.com) has crafted a calfskin range embossed with its signature emblem – just the ticket for adding vim and vigour to a smart suit. Dolce & Gabbana Edge backpack in canvas and cowhide, dolcegabbana.com ROCKING THE BOAT The selfwinding Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Orlebar Brown”, with a stainless-steel case and rubber strap Rarefied Swiss watchmaking and adventures on the high seas don’t naturally go hand in hand, but it was that swashbuckling spirit that first informed IWC’s Portugieser watch in 1939. Two Portuguese businessmen tasked the house, based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, to create a marine chronograph that took inspiration from deck-observation watches and nautical precision instruments. The Portigueser was born – today the most iconic model in the house’s firmament. And now, the brand has navigated into unchartered waters with a collaboration with British resortwear specialist Orlebar Brown. “Orlebar Brown has reinvented sporty, elegant leisurewear and proven with its unique, tailored approach that men can also look good in casual outfits,” says IWC’s CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr. The resulting meeting of minds has resulted in the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Orlebar Brown”, a sleek timepiece that employs the signature red, white and blue colours of the swimwear label as well as metal hardware that reflects the trademark side fastening on its trunks. Water-resistant, with a robust rubber strap, it’s designed for making a splash during the summer months. iwc.com; orlebarbrown.com Loewe Goya backpack in soft-grained calfskin, loewe.com Bennett Winch Backpack in full-grain Tuscan leather, bennettwinch.com CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 41
