Business acumen and a feel for fashion are key to surging into 21st century.
The Italian textile manufacturer and men’s suit maker Ermenegildo Zegna is scheduled to bring its yearlong, peripatetic centennial celebration to its Beverly Hills store on Tuesday. At almost exactly the same time, New York Fashion Week hits full stride about 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast.
While a company representative said the timing was purely coincidental (after all, the Milan-based brand pulled out all the stops for a 100th birthday bash during men’s fashion week there in June), it’s a good example of how the family-run company has managed to grow into a successful global business by operating outside the regular conventions of fashion.
In an era of instantly recognizable logos, celebrity designers, high-profile collaborations and over-the-top runway shows, the company whose name hardly trips off the tongue (it’s pronounced ayr-men-ah-JHYL-doh ZAYN-yuh by the way) manages to churn out suits that range from $1,995 (ready-to-wear) up to $40,000 (made-to-measure) and have been worn by the likes of Bill Clinton and Tom Brady. Zegna suits are slim, but not too slim; they catch your eye, but don’t pull your focus; and seasonal shifts can be so subtle that leaving an Ermenegildo Zegna runway show can make you feel like you’ve just been on the business end of a Jedi mind trick.
But retailers point to that stealth approach to style as one of the things that’s helped propel a company that began in 1910 with two dozen looms and a handful of employees into a 21st-century global juggernaut with 550 stores in 86 countries. It sources fabric from Switzerland; has trouser legs and sleeves made in Mexico, China and Spain and dress shirts in Turkey. In 2009, the company rang up just over $1 billion in global sales of items including made-to-measure suits, sportswear, underwear, footwear and fragrances. That puts it in the same league as the 192-year-old Brooks Brothers brand, which, according to industry trade publication WWD, sees annual revenue in the neighborhood of $850 million.
In addition to its labels — which include the