Stefano Pilati Leaving Ermenegildo Zegna

[Wildfoxing]

I'm excited to see what he will do here, I bet any money it will be amazing.

 

[Marc10]

It's so strange there isn't any follow up on what's to come from him and Zegna when we get zillion articles from Dior Raf or Hedi SLP. As boring as menswear is, it's Stefano Pilati, one of the greatest designer nowadays. I refuse to believe there's no journalist who wants to interview him.

Well let's be honest, Stefano was never a "hit designer" in terms of popularity and praise like Raf and Hedi, and his new job is considerably less prestigious than his last. But i'm sure when menswear week comes around we'll hear from him.

 

[ogepma]

Finally, we have something ! First show June 22nd.

GOING TO TUMBLR: Ahead of Stefano Pilati’s debut as creative director of Agnona and of Ermenegildo Zegna Couture with the latter’s show on June 22, the first Zegna Group Tumblr bowed Monday.

In addition to offering a glimpse into Pilati’s world and way of thinking, the Tumblr is to be considered as “a tutorial for the correct pronunciation” of the two brands, which share the gn letters — difficult to pronounce by non-Italians.

Pilati collaborated with Matt Mason, author of “The Pirate’s Dilemma” on the gn-project. Slides of words from Pilati’s vocabulary will be projected in an empty room. “Stefano Pilati’s medium is fashion. He uses fabrics to create his point of view and is a master in the use of means of communications,” said Mason. “Pilati is something of a pirate, a pirate in fashion. He rebelled against the system when it didn’t follow him and with his ‘manifests’ [while at Yves Saint Laurent] brought his image on the streets, letting his mind do the talking.”

http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/going-to-tumblr-6954437?src=rss/fashion/20130528

The blog looks very interesting. It's very SP and reminds me of his video days at YSL homme. http://gn-project.tumblr.com/

 

[mistress_f]

^i love it. i love the fact that they chose to do this around the 'gn' sound, it's pretty hilarious to me, as an italian-speaking person. (they should also do something about ermenegildo, that's hard to pronounce even to us, i can't even imagine to foreigners).

anyway, so, no resort for agnona? they announced it and then nothing? i'm disappointed

 

[ogepma]

Things are really beginning to look interesting!

Stefano Pilati Puts The Art Back Into Fashion

STEFANO PILATI will host an artistic installation to mark his debut collection for Ermenegildo Zegna. The event will launch on June 22, the opening day of the Milan Menswear Fashion Week schedule.

The designer has enlisted the help of Swedish film director Johan Söderberg, Swedish music producer Klas Ahlund - who has worked with Madonna and Kylie Minogue - and French composer Maxence Cyrin on the project, reports WWD. The outdoor event will be staged in Piazza VI Febbraio - the former site of the city's old fairgrounds - and will be open to the public. It was selected for its size and will seat 1,000 guests.

"It's a historical location, but it will have a futuristic edge," said a Zegna spokesperson, adding that the installation will have "mammoth dimensions".

Little more is known about the details of the project , which will run for three days - closing on June 25. Stefano Pilati, formerly creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, was named head of design at Zegna and its secondary womenswear line, Agnona, in September last year. According to WWD, Pilati is planning a similar artistic installation in Milan in September for his debut Agnona collection - during which he plans to "interact with the city".

Source: vogue.co.uk

I can't wait! Unfortunately though, it seems there will be no resort collection for Agnona.

 

[Cold]

Designer Stefano Pilati Discusses the Future of Menswear
When Ermenegildo Zegna sought to change his company's profile, he turned to former YSL designer Stefano Pilati. With his debut collection, Pilati reflects on the future of menswear and the excitement of finding a new creative home

Stefano Pilati in his studio. Photos by Nan Goldin

For anyone fortunate enough to know how it feels to wear Stefano Pilati's drop-dead elegant clothes, the news that the distinguished designer—equal parts tailoring and tattoos—is once again exerting his subtle influence on the fashion world is welcome news. Hardly had the dust settled on his departure from YSL last year when Ermenegildo Zegna, a giant of the luxury textile industry, courted him to design both menswear and the company's ready-to-wear women's line, Agnona.

With his extensive firsthand experience in Italian fashion (from Cerruti , where he made his first apprenticeship at the age of 18, to Armani, Prada and Gucci), his passion for luxury fabrics as the building blocks of fashion and his burning curiosity for all things new, Pilati is poised to transform the venerable, century-old Italian fashion house through what CEO Gildo Zegna describes as a "fast-forward approach to menswear," shaped by "the apparent contradiction between industry and savoir faire."

'Men have become more and more body-conscious,' Pilati says, 'and that consciousness is exercised in a closely defined silhouette.'

Several months into the job, with his first collections for Zegna Couture drawing praise, Pilati discusses with his friend and occasional collaborator Louise Neri (a director at Gagosian gallery) how he came to this phase of his career and what it means to return to his roots from a new place he calls home.

--
Louise Neri: You left YSL in 2012. How did you prepare for your reentry into fashion?

Stefano Pilati: First, I had to decide whether I wanted to continue with fashion or not. I took some time off, traveled around Europe; I decided to move from Paris. I planned to find another city, where I would like to live. But in the end, a lot of my time off was spent negotiating the proposal from Zegna.

Neri: Was it difficult for you to take a sabbatical?

Pilati: In fashion you are constantly under pressure to be on the pulse, and as the pulse gets faster and faster, you need to grab it and be ahead. So time off can't really be entertained. But I did take nine months off—at least physically speaking—which allowed me to think about the possibilities while planning my new life, to plan ahead in a broader way, without an immediate deadline. What was good is that I moved away from an epicenter of fashion, to Berlin, a city where fashion is just not that present.

Neri: Looking back, was that a deliberate choice? Or did it just happen?

Pilati: Both. The convergence of circumstances made me pay attention to a certain city—Berlin—and while that was happening I discovered that it was important for me not to feel so much under the pressure of fashion, as I did in Paris. There, just walking from home to the office I was bombarded by changing shop windows, new collection arrivals—it was never a relaxed walk! Berlin is not like that at all.

Neri: In recent years Berlin has meant the same for many international visual artists who visit from abroad for residencies and end up staying because there is less market heat and noise; it offers peace and calm, as well as large affordable spaces.

Pilati: Same for me. Recently I returned from a trip to London, and I realized that even the architectural aspects of Berlin that I don't like do, in fact, reflect my own time. Paris, New York, London and Milan are seductive historical cities, whereas Berlin has been virtually rebuilt during my lifetime. This is totally new for me; when I walk around, I am not seduced or weighed down by the past. Now I look forward.

Neri: What made you decide to locate your new studio in Berlin, far from the Zegna headquarters in Milan?

Pilati: This is a whole different approach. I can be far from the Zegna headquarters and yet it works very well. Zegna's platform is really solid, unlike my previous job, where I had to put everything in place and therefore had to be present physically all the time. Zegna has a highly effective machine, a logistical structure that is trained to work in such a way that I can come straight in with my ideas and begin directing.

Neri: Can you describe your studio?

Pilati: For the first time in my life, I have my own work/live studio. It is a beautiful old building. The studio is on the ground floor; I am living temporarily on the first floor, and I am building a modern penthouse on the roof. Each day I literally jump out of bed, take a shower, have breakfast and start work. This dynamic is totally new for me. I like it because everything becomes very personal and close. I am surrounded by my own vibe. The first floor houses my archive. When I left Paris, I ended a 30-year period during which I had accumulated a lot of clothes. I ended up with a vast wardrobe for every kind of category, so I needed the space to store everything.

Neri: So it's a working archive?

Pilati: Very much so. It's my wardrobe, so I can take anything out and wear it, getting inspiration from clothes that I made, acquired or were prototypes. There are clothes I bought when I was 16.

Neri: Critics remarked that your first Zegna collection epitomized a new, more relaxed approach to menswear. How does Zegna as a brand—and your redesign of it—reflect contemporary men's needs?

Pilati: Zegna couture reflects a luxurious lifestyle. I've always pushed the feeling of being at ease with masculine vanity. Journalists reduced this idea to dandyism, which I consider outdated. Long before my engagement with Zegna, I sensed this new potential in menswear. It was important that my first collection project an easy language. Before I even put the show together, I asked myself how I could make Zegna distinctive in this evolving landscape. I wanted to emphasize a studied nonchalance in dressing up for men.

Neri: How consciously did you infuse your own personal aesthetic into your first collection?

Pilati: Because of the feedback I get, I know that my personal style can have resonance in the market. The "broken suit" and "after six" are all part of how I choose to dress. I have a big and very colorful wardrobe. From this I can put together many looks in different ways. A large wardrobe is a luxury, so the use of color was in itself an indicator of luxury, a gesture of ease. This was my main way of making the brand distinctive. The idea of the "broken suit" comes more or less from the same concept. The height of chic is to take a jacket from one suit and pants from another, where the shades perfectly match and it looks like a suit, but it reveals a personality that is a bit different. It is formal, original, classic and, at the same time, shows that you have possibilities and status.

Neri: What did Gildo think you could do for Zegna?

Pilati: He wanted to upgrade Zegna to a fashion brand. Zegna is an institution of textile manufacturing worldwide. It is a very safe place for men to buy quality menswear characterized by a lack of excess—formal, but not too old, and not too young either. They did a great job diversifying in other categories, such as Zegna Sport and Z Zegna, with lower prices and broader fashion appeal, and the flagship brand, Ermenegildo Zegna. Then three years ago they began doing fashion shows to grab attention in the fashion world. It was successful to a certain extent. At that point Gildo wanted to upgrade the company's image.

Neri: Gildo Zegna has said that his company aspires to be a global brand. How will you attune the company profile to a global market?

Pilati: I'm responsible for the image of Ermenegildo Zegna via the new Couture line, which is 90 percent made by hand. Couture contemplates different categories—not just suits but also outerwear, knitwear, shoes, bags and so on. But Couture will influence all the other labels by tuning and aligning the logistical, creative aspect of the entire brand. Zegna has never had a creative director with a broad vision. So my direction will help transform it from a service brand into a fashion brand.

Neri: What is it like to try and steer Zegna toward your point of view?

Pilati: I find Zegna, with Gildo at its head, to be extremely open; they desired a collaboration with someone who could challenge their position. But my vision for Zegna is not to make a revolution; I admire what they have already done, and I remain interested in evolving what they have begun. The first collection did just that, giving my personal touch while maintaining and highlighting its established codes.

Neri: You've said that "a man should still look like a man, a woman should still look like a woman, and the codes are the same as 20, 30, 40 years ago." In your past collections for men and women, masculine and feminine signifiers were in constant interplay. How does that manifest itself in your menswear collection?

Pilati: I'm addressing my fashion to a certain audience, to men—as opposed to boys—who interact with a certain professional world that is much larger than the fashion world. Men have become more and more body-conscious, and that consciousness is exercised in a closely defined silhouette. Whereas women can be body-conscious while maintaining a more fluid silhouette; the body can be visible through loose, transparent or floating fabric. We don't find this in menswear. I am intrigued by this and how to express it in classic menswear. It's an attitude to dressing up that can be more feminine, less strict. Having said that, I'm not about to start advocating skirts for men!

wsj

 

[Cold]

Cont.

Neri: What are some of your signature features?

Pilati: Shoes without laces. Jacket sleeves without buttons. In this case, I curve the cuff to avoid the need for buttons. Additionally this allows for the jacket to be individually tailored by the customer. A lapel that's not too large, not too small, but a neutral hybrid that still looks elegant. Classic shirts like Polo shirts, but still with the perfect defining collar; scarves because they can totally change the style of a person. And big overcoats, which I love because they are comfortable and have a fluid silhouette, dramatic volume and great presence.

Neri: You are an expatriate Italian, a cosmopolitan rather than a nationalist; does this create an attraction between you and Zegna, a quintessential Italian brand?

Pilati: Definitely. I said I would never return to Italy, and they accepted it. Being away allows me greater objectivity about Italian style, which Zegna typifies. My style is classic but original and eclectic. I pick up from all kinds of influences and put them together in my own way. I think my profile, my characteristics and my design are seductive to them. It feels logical to us to be working together.

Neri: What excites you most about working with Zegna?

Pilati: I am one of the only designers today who has a huge company with such vast competence and skills behind him. Zegna can do anything. However, the company is so big that sometimes making a move is like moving a mountain and requires a lot of energy. At the same time, they are so open-minded and curious. In the area of fabric technology, being huge means that it is difficult to push research and development too far. Having said that, they are super avant-garde in terms of new techniques of evolving natural fibers with enhancing components.

Neri: You also have a long history in textile R&D.

Pilati: Zegna was one of the first factories I visited when I was an 18-year-old novice—I joked with them recently that they didn't remember me as a kid, but I remember them! And in all my past jobs, I frequently used Zegna fabrics. When I accepted this role, I visited the Zegna factory and the archive even before I visited the headquarters, and it was so striking that I told Gildo I wanted to have my office there.

This first impression inspired a short film for the first show—the enormous power I felt there, the organization, the machines (which formed the basis for a sort of ballet mecanique and the musical score), and the workers dedicated to these natural fibers. I wanted to visually juxtapose the machine with artisanal savoir faire to show how the two come together in the contemporary vision of Zegna.

Neri: What is your relationship to contemporary art?

Pilati: Since the age of 18 I have had a keen interest in contemporary art, beginning with the Italian Arte Povera movement. When I started working at Prada, the company was already creating its own art programs, while the general interest in contemporary art was climbing to new levels internationally. As a person with a keen visual sensibility, I have always surrounded myself with the art and objects of my time, from works by Matthew Barney , Andy Warhol , Rosemarie Trockel and Richard Serra , to bespoke furniture by designers such as Martino Gamper and Andrea Branzi.

Neri: Do you consider fashion designers to be artists?

Pilati: Not really. My clothes live in a space, a moment, a time. Ultimately what interests me is that you wear them, you feel them, you look at yourself, and that process transmits a sense of aesthetic usefulness and elegance.

Having said that, in the process of moving I came across some of my own paintings, and suddenly they seem interesting to me again. When I made them in 1998, I was at a crossroads in my career. In the end, as I was already highly skilled and experienced in fashion and untrained in art, I chose to stay where I was. But looking at these paintings now, I'm reminded of how I felt at the time, that they provided me with a space of pure process and sensation where I could directly express myself. That's a powerful feeling!

wsj

 

[HeatherAnne]

Great read, it says a lot about his state of mind. I had sensed his desire to lay low, as he's really taken a step out of the limelight since starting at Zegna -- I think that's a smart and rare decision in the age we're living in where the designer has become more known and present than the collections they are putting forth. I also loved the line about masculine vanity against the outdated concept of dandyism, and designing for men and not boys. I hope he realizes that's what woman want from him as well, feminine vanity versus something girly. His first collection for Agnona, while solid, wasn't hitting with the power and sexiness that I know he's a capable of.

 

[mistress_f]

Great read, it says a lot about his state of mind. I had sensed his desire to lay low, as he's really taken a step out of the limelight since starting at Zegna -- I think that's a smart and rare decision in the age we're living in where the designer has become more known and present than the collections they are putting forth. I also loved the line about masculine vanity against the outdated concept of dandyism, and designing for men and not boys. I hope he realizes that's what woman want from him as well, feminine vanity versus something girly. His first collection for Agnona, while solid, wasn't hitting with the power and sexiness that I know he's a capable of.

i agree with every single word. i'm also very upset that that agnona collection is nearly impossible to find outside milan. i'd love to see the items in person, the black outfits are really interesting. wtf. you'd think an italian brand would be easy to find in the country's capital.

more on topic, there's a short feature on stefano (and his boyfriend chris) on the current issue of fantastic man:



that's rather... interesting (sorry my scanner's broke so these pics will do)

 

[t-rex]

There is an article about him and Agnona in US Vogue's October issue (page 244.) It says he wanted his first collection to be low-key (as in now runway show, I hope that changes!) Stefano says he absolutely loved his last YSL collection and has no regrets.

 

[Marc10]

The Lion and the Lamb
With independent thinking and fierce determination, Stefano Pilati is shaking up Agnona, Zegna's 60-year-old cashmere brand

By Tim Blanks. Photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

The huge image that greeted guests at Agnona's showroom in Milan this September was the very picture of innocence. Matthew, a lamb of purest white, winsomely stretched back his throat in a gesture of…was it submission? Or was the fact that the photograph was taken by husband-and-wife provocateurs Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamsweerde a cue to some other, more ambiguous response on the part of onlookers? Was Matthew actually a new icon of off-kilter glamour?

Stefano Pilati, making his debut as Agnona's creative director, couldn't have wished for anything more. "Inez and Vinoodh shot Matthew for the advertising campaign with my concept and direction, and I loved the idea of their precise style applied to lamb's wool, which is part of the brand's tradition. But I also loved the idea of a fashion brand with such a heritage promoting itself for the first time with the portrait of a lamb. It struck me as subversive."

It's a response Pilati grew attuned to during ten years in France, most of them as the designer for Yves Saint Laurent. His tenure was marked by controversy and garlands of praise, followed by bouquets of brickbats. "I cannot express myself more than to say that the French are French and Italians are Italians," is the only comment he'll make on his time in Paris. "No affinities whatsoever." But Pilati certainly sounds happy to find himself working in Italy once again. (He regularly visits Zegna's headquarters in Milan but makes his home and keeps his studio in Berlin.) "Italy feels more logical, and the process progresses faster. People are more passionate, with a taste that is grounded rather than purely imaginative."

That sounds a little odd coming from Pilati, given that some of his strongest moments at YSL were imaginative-bordering-on-perverse, like the flights of high Catholic fancy, the languid evocation of Paul Bowles' Tangier, or the toxic underworld of Robert Mapplethorpe's X-rated photographs. Maybe what comes across strongest at Agnona is an attitude that blends a little of both tastes, the grounded and the fanciful. There's plenty of double-face cashmere for old-school Agnonettes, then there's a soft, almost kimono-like coat that Pilati could have lifted straight off his own back, or a coat with a trompe l'oeil shirttail, or, most fanciful of all, a crocodile shirt jacket printed with a folksy checkered pattern that renders the extreme luxury of the material all but invisible.

"I didn't want to use crocodile for the sake of it," Pilati explains. "To use it is a gesture of luxury, and Agnona is a luxury brand. I'm also working on a seasonless concept, to give some [primarily] wintry fabrics a summer feeling. So I wanted to snub the conventional luxury of crocodile and use it in a summer look that the Agnona woman would wear to ride her scooter or drive her convertible to the village to buy suntan lotion or groceries or whatever. Luxury, for me, must have that over-the-top attitude but be effortless at the same time. That's what feels chic to me."

To make his point even clearer, you need to know exactly what that folksy check was all about. It's called palaka, a fabric imported to Hawaii by Japanese settlers in the late 19th century. It was originally used for workers' clothing, before surfers adopted it. For a long time, Hawaii was Pilati's own private nirvana and surfing his release (there was always a board propped in the corner of his office at YSL). It made sense that palaka lived somewhere in his consciousness. "I've been waiting for the right time to introduce it into the textile fashion vocabulary," he agrees. So here is just about the most casual, beach-friendly pattern you could possibly imagine printed all over—or woven into—some of the most extraordinary fabrics you'll ever feel.

The contrariness of that contrast is quintessential Pilati. It's also another indication of just how successfully he has imprinted himself on his new positions, first at Ermenegildo Zegna, now at Agnona. In the past, he could come across as wayward, maverick, decadent, but there was so much of all that in Saint Laurent himself that something kindred flowered. Zegna and Agnona, on the other hand, come from a very different place: classicism, not controversy. But such tradition was, in fact, what appealed to the designer: "A heritage based mostly on fabrics, rather than fashion, was the perfect platform to project and express my sensibility and taste."

Pilati insists the experience has actually been liberating. "The culture of Agnona perfectly lends itself to the manipulation of classic shapes and cuts," he says. That helps explain why he's called this collection ZERO, which is his tip of the cap to a conglomerate of artistic avant-gardists who came together in Düsseldorf around the time Agnona came into being sixty years ago. It may sound willfully obscure, but Pilati has always been fascinated by the margins of the art world. And the ZERO group's manifesto, which called for a rejection of tradition in favor of innovation, actually hints at possible futures for Pilati at Agnona.

Asked for one word to define the fashion industry as it now stands, he answers, "Tired." He seems to be developing Agnona as a way of shaking things up. One of the ways he's doing so is by launching the collection as seasonless. To underscore that, it debuted not on a catwalk but in a pop-up shop in Milan, where customers could order the items on the spot. Scattered among the clothes on the racks were upcoming pieces labeled "prototypes," to emphasize the ongoing seasonless concept. "An infinite work in progress" was Pilati's own label for his Agnona debut. He himself was absent from the event, convinced that the designer's presence would distract from the clothes, rather than enhance them.

So, yes, he's doing things differently with his new role. Nevertheless, Agnona exists in a design realm that is distinctly Pilati's. Years ago, he insisted that any collection he labeled with his own name would be very different from anything anyone had seen him do. Which kind of begs this question: How much closer are we to that point?

Comes the cryptic reply, "I am at the starting point." Matthew's no innocent little lamb, he's a sphinx!

style

 

[Koibito]

How Stefano Pilati Plans to Modernise Zegna

BY IMRAN AMED 20 NOVEMBER, 2013

In a global exclusive interview to coincide with the unveiling of a new advertising campaign for Ermenegildo Zegna, a part of the brand's repositioning strategy, Imran Amed sat down with head of design Stefano Pilati to discuss his plans for modernising the venerable Italian menswear label, while embracing its rich heritage in tailoring and fabric development.

LOS ANGELES, United States — Since joining Ermenegildo Zegna as head of design in January of this year, Stefano Pilati has kept a low profile, shunning backstage interviews and staying out of the limelight, seeming to prefer to let his work speak for itself instead.

A major manufacturer of luxury textiles and suiting (for brands like Tom Ford and Gucci) and a purveyor of classic men’s tailoring under its own Ermenegildo Zegna label, Zegna is the largest luxury menswear player in the world, with more than €1.2 billion (about $1.6 billion) in annual revenues. But in the face of growing competition in the luxury menswear sector, Pilati has been brought in to bring a new, fashionable edge to the powerhouse, tradition-steeped menswear brand by designing its “Zegna Couture” collection and overseeing the brand’s overall image.

But when it came to directing the opening of Zegna’s brand new flagship on LA’s Rodeo Drive and the unveiling of his first ad campaign for the company, Mr Pilati says he hesitated to get too involved. “There was a moment where I thought, ‘Well maybe I shouldn’t participate, because it is not really me,’” revealed a polished yet effortlessly cool Pilati, (dressed in a delicately embellished bomber jacket from his debut collection, paired with jeans and a t-shirt) over breakfast at the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, the day after a star-studded store opening party.

Pilati explained that it was actually go-to luxury architect Peter Marino who designed the new Zegna store, which has been conceived with a more classic Zegna aesthetic in mind. “But then at the same time, I am part of Zegna, so I wanted to support the event. It was the first time, in a way, that I was here officially for Zegna.”

Indeed, the LA party was effectively Pilati’s public debut for the Italian menswear behemoth (complete with the requisite celebrity shenanigans, including photos with Sharon Stone, Gerard Butler, Edward Norton and Joe Jonas) for which the designer oversaw practically every detail, right down to the deejays.

“They have art names but I don’t remember them,” jokes Mr Pilati when I ask him about the layered, electronic music that played in the background as the good and great of Hollywood mingled with Zegna executives and members of the international press. He knows the deejays’ real names, of course. In fact, he brought them to Los Angeles from his current home base in Berlin. “One is François and the other one is Todd. They are both very good, so that is why I brought them here,” he adds, showing he is as plugged-in as ever into the creative zeitgeist.

This talent for plucking what’s cool out of the air has been a key pillar of an impressive career, during which Stefano Pilati has become one of the most talked-about fashion designers in the world. As creative director of Yves Saint Laurent, he was singled out by New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn, in 2005, as one of six “elite” fashion designers in Paris, alongside Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Phoebe Philo, Olivier Theyskens and Alber Elbaz.

But the YSL role was the first time Pilati had stepped out from behind-the-scenes and into the limelight; he previously worked alongside some of the industry’s greatest designers — first Giorgio Armani, then Miuccia Prada and Tom Ford — but always in the background.

Churning out four collections a year for Yves Saint Laurent was no easy task, especially under the growing glare of the global fashion spotlight, amplified by the knowledge that the brand’s legendary founder, who died in 2008, and his business partner, Pierre Bergé, were watching as he tried to forge a modern identity for the venerable French brand.

Finally, in 2010, after a decade in the pressure cooker of Parisian fashion, Mr Pilati exited YSL, having been dogged by rumours and speculation for several seasons about his impending departure. Afterwards, he hinted to the media that he was ready to take a break — that was, until he had dinner with Gildo Zegna, the affable and energetic chief executive of Ermenegildo Zegna, whose grandfather started the brand in 1910.

Through the powers of persuasion, Mr Zegna brought Pilati out of his self-imposed professional hibernation by exposing him to the rich heritage of the Ermenegildo Zegna business and offering him the chance to simultaneously build a new womenswear line under the framework of Agnona, a dormant womenswear brand owned by the Zegna Group, and design for Zegna Couture, a collection which sits at the very top of the brand’s pricing pyramid and acts as a communication vehicle for Zegna as a whole.

For Pilati, it proved to be too irresistible an opportunity to turn down.

Mr Zegna saw Stefano Pilati as the ideal man to re-spin Zegna’s rich heritage into something more modern, with a current fashion edge; something that could help place Zegna comfortably alongside Louis Vuitton’s menswear offering, designed by Kim Jones, and Berluti, which was in the process of transforming itself from a bespoke shoemaker into a men’s luxury lifestyle brand under former Z Zegna designer Alessandro Sartori.

In June, Mr Pilati unveiled his first collection for Zegna Couture to rave reviews. “The soul of the show was in the feeling” that Mr Pilati brought to the brand, wrote Suzy Menkes in the International Herald Tribune. Tim Blanks said the presentation “set Pilati’s clothes in a cultural continuum of music, film and fashion.” And, Alexander Fury of London’s Independent newspaper declared: “What Pilati did today was give Zegna a fashion relevance, and a fashion identity. ”

The oversized backdrop for the Milan show was a striking short film, directed by Johan Soderburg, released today for the first time online, here on BoF. Critically, the video broke with formulaic fashion film tropes and avoided the usual pouting models. Nor did it attempt to showcase Zegna’s heritage with a cast of “artisans” in white lab coats. Instead, it exposed the very nuts, bolts and machinery that create Zegna’s luxurious fabrics, which lie at the heart of the business and formed the basis for Mr Pilati’s ideas for taking the brand forward.

businessoffashion

 

[Koibito]

“With the collection, I was trying to define those territories that define Zegna, the industry; the factories; the industrial savoir faire,” he explains. “That is why, I put the video for the show together. I found out about the machines, organising a kind of a sound and concept that could show this industry from a contemporary point of view. Everything that has been done in the savoir faire, for me, was a bit boring. I wanted a kind of newer way.”

What’s more, because Zegna lacked any sort of real fashion identity to begin with, and was born instead from a history of textile and fabric development, Mr Pilati was able to inject his own ideas into the brand and set the framework for what Zegna’s fashion statement could be, rather than working within the structure of a fashion brand that was already far more defined (and possibly, even, weighed down by history) like YSL.

“When I started to work on the last collection, I said ‘How can I make the Zegna man distinguished in the menswear landscape?’ And I thought, you know, a gesture of luxury. It can be translated in the use of colour, without necessarily looking like a dandy or a peacock. You can do it elegantly, all based on nuances,” he explains.

“I have a huge wardrobe from since the time I was a kid and I have a lot of sweaters and a lot of jackets and I put them together in a way that I can go to meet Gildo and be ok, in front of all the businessman,” he explains. “Let’s assume that our luxurious customer has everything already. If I introduce the use of colour, you can be formally elegant, but still quite original. That for me is the role that Zegna needs to take on menswear.”

But Zegna Couture represents only a small fraction of the overall Zegna business. This posed a conundrum for Pilati when Gildo Zegna asked the designer to create his first ad campaign — one that could speak for the entire Zegna brand. Pilati realised he would have to strike a balance between Zegna’s more classical tailoring and the design-led approach of the Couture collection.

“How can I keep the two things together?” Pilati asks himself. “If I showed only colour, floral, broken suits with a scarf instead of a tie, it might be a bit too ‘Whoa, what’s going on there?’ There are two elements and they need to go together.”

Ultimately, Pilati conceived of a campaign, shot by Inez & Vinoodh, called “The New Éminences Grises,” to showcase the relationship between the frontman, in this case, actor Jamie Dornan, dressed in Ermenegildo Zegna Couture, and Paolo Anchesi, a rising model who played the part of an influential, behind-the-scenes figure, dressed in Zegna’s mainline. “Ninety percent of the time, a man in grey has a Zegna suit on and I like that idea. It was just a matter of an association of ideas,” says Pilati.

The final piece of the communications puzzle was another film created by Soderburg, this time featuring Stefano Pilati himself doing a cheeky turn as a television new anchorman. When Zegna’s communications team approached him, he suggested the idea on the fly, not thinking that they would actually agree to his off-the-wall approach.

“[They] came to me and said, ‘We normally do a video, where we actually explain the concept of the campaign — would you like to do it? Obviously, I hate this kind of thing, but I said ‘OK, I will do it,’ only on one condition: that I can do it as a form of CNN news. If you really listen to it, you understand what the campaign is and why I did it.”

In direct contrast to Pilati’s runway video, which was quite considered and had been very carefully crafted, the anchorman video seemed to say, ‘Listen, I don’t take myself so seriously, this is fun!’

Indeed, this seems to be the greatest change of all in Mr Pilati’s approach to fashion since joining Zegna: he is finding real enjoyment in doing his job. It doesn’t have to be heavy, or onerous. A big part of this seems to be due to a budding relationship with Gildo Zegna.

“We are about the same age, so we understand each other in a way. We are both Italian, so that helps. But we also come at things from completely different points of view, so we learn a lot from each other. In a way, I am educating him too and teaching him a kind of fashion vocabulary, and he is someone I can really talk to, which is something I haven’t had since I left Prada.”

The back and forth with Mr Zegna about repositioning the brand has forced the duo to work closely together. “It seems the logical in a way, because we both need each other. I don’t like to be creative for the sake of being creative, he says. “I want to make sense of what I am doing.”

businessoffashion

 

[HeatherAnne]

Stefano Pilati Exits Agnona, Remains at Zegna

Just breaking, but WWD is reporting that Stefano Pilati is Exiting Agnona, and Remaining at Zegna

The spring/summer 2016 collection to be presented in September will be completed by the brand's design studio.

- wwd

No more womenswear from Pilati? I was loving his work for Agnona.

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

His work was gorgeous at Agnona. A shame to see him leave

 

[TheoG]

This is surprising! I thought Pilati found his footing at Agnona, a label that was at a scale he felt comfortable presenting his vision. Everything was timeless and exceptional quality, going to miss him doing womenswear but at least his staying at Zegna.

 

[perhydrol]

Oh no, his work at Agnona was timeless and chic but still modern and we could see a lot of interesting techniques... it was demi-couture to me. I'm sad, because I've prefered his womenswear, both at Agnona and Yves Saint Laurent

 

[t-rex]

Would be cool to see him at Balenciaga, rumors are swirling about Wang there...

 

[marcBarna]

It was a bit weird that there was no resort collection, I guess this is the answer... really bad news

 

[Lola701]

He should just leave Zegna. I don't know who is buying the couture line.
Agnona was very beautiful but too exclusive. You forgot about the clothes even before they hit the stores.

I want him to do Balenciaga. He can bring back the exclusivity and the "couture" in the house. He needs a huge name to support his designs.

But considering how he left YSL and the Kering group, i don't believe he will ever work for them.