How Gildo Zegna is fashioning a future for his family firm

Heading a group that now has three distinct brands, chairman and chief executive retains values established by his grandfather while leading an evolution

Gildo Zegna, chairman and chief executive of Ermenegildo Zegna Group, is bringing the legacy of his grandfather's brand into the future. Photo Ermenegildo Zegna Group

“Tom Ford is glamour, Thom Browne is fashion, and Zegna I think, is more than luxury,” explains Ermenegildo ‘Gildo’ Zegna. He is chairman and chief executive of the gentleman’s outfitter Zegna and its parent company, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group.

Gildo led the group's purchases of the two American fashion houses: Thom Browne in August 2018 and Tom Ford in April 2023. To outsiders, grouping the trio of brands looks odd – bizarre almost – but Gildo is adamant the three are natural stable mates. “It's a luxury combination,” he says. “One helps the other, and I think this is very important for the luxury customer. This is all authentic, luxury and complementary.”

Thom Browne brings its high-fashion take on tailoring to the group, while Tom Ford is known for its megawatt glamour. Add to this Zegna's reputation for immaculate high-end menswear, and it becomes a multifaceted exploration of quality, originality and clarity of identity.

Tom Ford is the more glamorous of the three Zegna brands. Photo: Ermenegildo Zegna Group

Ford and Browne will also bring something that Zegna lacks – womenswear. Both have well-established women’s lines and the hope is that this will lure a new customer base. Such thinking is part of Gildo's wider plan. “Each brand has a strong founder,” he explains. “I can lead in terms of value and long-term vision, but each is unique for its own sake, so we need to keep that legacy, that authenticity. DNA is key.”

The recent signing of Haider Ackermann to lead Tom Ford is another key element. “We are very happy indeed because I think that he can bring a new dimension to the brand. It's going to be a new chapter for Tom Ford.”

Gildo is the third generation to lead the company founded by his grandfather Ermenegildo Zegna – after whom he is named – in Piedmont, Italy in 1910. Today he is tasked with building a company on three fronts while retaining the foundational concept of respect, responsibility and uncompromising quality.

Mads Mikkelsen stars in Zegna's fall/winter 2024 campaign. Photo: Ermenegildo Zegna Group

“We have our own textile platform, which I think is fantastic, and it is probably the best way to show that we take you from sheep to shop,” explains Gildo. The entire process is under the company's control, or “fully vertically integrated” as he described it.

“It is a headache, and it is costly, but we create innovation out of that, which becomes a very strong advantage not only for Zegna but for the other two brands. We buy the wool from our farm, cut, twist and finish the wool, and make our own clothing.

“You have to think slow and then act fast. This is the great thing about silent luxury. Before you get something out, you think twice. I mean, to get a shoe or knit to market, it's over two years of testing, checking and making sure it performs.”

Since it began in the early 1900s, Zegna has found that its customers' needs have shifted. Naturally, Zegna has evolved, too. A few decades ago, cut-to-perfection tailored suits and the finest wools money could buy were the clients' demands. Today, customers are more likely to favour a more casual wardrobe, better suited to a mobile lifestyle.

The farm-to-fashion house approach has helped Zegna sustain this change over time. Now, it focuses on high-end leisurewear such as lightweight cashmere crew neck jumpers, joggers made from its superfine 15milmil15 wool (named for being 15.2 microns in diameter), and triple-stitched deer skin trainers. All aimed at a man who demands comfort and quality whether on board a yacht, in the boardroom or lunching in St Tropez.

Part of this evolution also saw the group buying up other companies such as a silk weaving specialist Tessitura di Novara in 2009, and an Australian sheep farm in 2014 that produces world-class wool. “My grandfather created what they call the finest thread in the world,” he explains.

Named after the farm and flock that Zegna owns, Achillfarm wool is lightweight and fine, with one feature that Gildo clearly loves to repeat. “From one kilogram of wool you can get 120 kilometres of yarn,” he explains. “That's the distance from Milan to Trivero.”

Trivero, Piedmont is where the Ermenegildo Zegna house was founded over a century ago. Started as a rival of British wools of the day, Zegna senior understood decades before others that 'made in Italy' should be a marker of quality.

A true visionary, he also instinctively understood the benefits of looking after his workers. After building a mill and factory in the Piedmont hills, he built a community featuring a school, gym, pool and hospital. He also bought a large swath of land around the factory to be replanted with half a million trees, rhododendrons and other flowers in what today would be called rewilding. Now open to the public, it has become a haven for wildlife.

“It has become, you know, a kind of a national park. It's 100 square kilometres. It's 30 times the size of Central Park, New York just to give you the idea.”

Oasi Zegna is a manifestation of the founder's mindset and manifesto for the fashion house. Photo: Ermenegildo Zegna Group

Called Oasi Zegna, this land and the family house that stands within it are deeply symbolic for the family and emblematic of their grandfather's mindset.

“Oasi Zegna is our road to the future,” says Gildo. “We have the most beautiful asset of what we consider luxury. Because luxury is silence; luxury is the environment; luxury is to be on your own and re-energise. And this is the principle of sustainability.

“My grandfather was a visionary and his thinking was green and philanthropic; giving back and caring for the people working for him. These were the principles we have inherited. This is really where it all started and that's where our values come from.”

Such values help explain why Zegna has enjoyed a presence in the UAE since 2000. “The Gulf countries are really becoming the core for luxury. It used to be Hong Kong, but I think that the new world is here, and there is an energy here which is hard to find anywhere else.”

Twenty-five years of dressing men in this region has also gifted Zegna an understanding of how to create clothes that will not shift or bubble in the extreme humidity and heat. “You know, we sell very expensive clothes and we want to make sure that we guarantee only the best.”