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Italian Fashion Brand Zegna Trims Hopes for Full Recovery in 2021

A screen displays Ermenegildo Zegna’s digital FallWinter 2021 Men’s fashion collection, on January 15, 2021 in downtown Milan. (Getty Images)
A screen displays Ermenegildo Zegna’s digital FallWinter 2021 Men’s fashion collection, on January 15, 2021 in downtown Milan. (Getty Images)
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Italian Fashion Brand Zegna Trims Hopes for Full Recovery in 2021

A screen displays Ermenegildo Zegna’s digital FallWinter 2021 Men’s fashion collection, on January 15, 2021 in downtown Milan. (Getty Images)
A screen displays Ermenegildo Zegna’s digital FallWinter 2021 Men’s fashion collection, on January 15, 2021 in downtown Milan. (Getty Images)

Ermenegildo Zegna’s CEO fears the Italian luxury clothing group will not reach a full recovery in 2021 after the coronavirus crisis bit into industry-wide revenues last year, but is still confident of a strong recovery in the second half.

The ongoing rise in COVID-19 infections around the world is cooling growth expectations for the sector this year despite the start of vaccinations in many key markets.

“I think 2021 will be between 2019 and 2020 levels. It will certainly not be worse than last year. I dare not make more ambitious estimates, the first half of the year seems not easy,” CEO Gildo Zegna told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference for the autumn/winter 2021 collection.

“But we are certainly more ready than last year to face the situation,” he added.

In 2020, the group reported a drop in sales of just over 20%, Zegna said. “We managed to stay above 1 billion euros in revenues, which was my target, and preserve cash and keep a core profit thanks to cost cutting.”

China, where demand for luxury goods has rebounded strongly since the summer, and digital sales, which boomed during the pandemic “have been our lungs”, Zegna said.

The group kicked off Milan Men’s Fashion Week with a “fashion movie” released online.

Next winter’s collection was designed with new habits in mind as people spend more time at home.

More formal clothes have given way to fluid and unstructured ones, still very tailored and made with luxury fabrics. And for the first time, Zegna is offering the same clothes in smaller sizes for women.

“I think that in the future we will dress more and more ‘Silicon Valley style’, inside like outside, him like her,” Gildo Zegna stated, indicating the group’s strategy is moving from formal to more informal clothing.

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Fashion

Goosebumps and Stars as Paris Fashion Week Kicks Off

Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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Goosebumps and Stars as Paris Fashion Week Kicks Off

Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Hollywood stars braved the rain to open Paris Fashion Week at L'Oreal's giant outdoor show Monday as rumors swirl of musical chairs at the top of fabled French brands.
The cosmetics giant persuaded Jane Fonda -- in snazzy silver sneakers -- Kendall Jenner, Eva Longoria and several of its other brand ambassadors to walk in a spectacular public show in front of the gilded glory of the Opera Garnier.
With invites to the big luxury shows strictly limited to the glitterati and fashion insiders, L'Oreal said it wanted to democratize the glamor of fashion week.
Introduced by singer Celine Dion, the "Walk Your Worth" show also featured Andie MacDowell, Indian star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, models with prosthetic limbs and Brazilian supermodel Luma Grothe proudly showing off her bump.
"The idea is to let the public see for themselves the beautiful clothes, settings and people that they would never normally have access to," L'Oreal's Paris director general Delphine Viguier told AFP.
Fashion's young guard had earlier endured a stormy start to the nine-day extravaganza -- Rising French star Victor Weinsanto staged his spring-summer show on the wet and windy roof of the Pompidou Centre museum, his fishnet and mesh ensembles created around Croatian drag queen Le Filip being tested by the elements.
The Paris shows started as falling profits at the two luxury giants LVMH and Kering have sent a shudder through the industry, fueling talk of a "Game of Thrones" among top designers.
Celine's Hedi Slimane and Simon Porte Jacquemus -- the young French designer who made tiny handbags and tiny everything else a thing -- are being talked of to fill Karl Lagerfeld's empty chair at Chanel after Virginie Viard, who took the reins after the death of "the Kaiser" in 2019, bowed out in June.
Hotly anticipated
Tongues are also likely to wag at the spring-summer shows over where John Galliano might go, with his contract at Maison Margiela nearing its end.
The first shows from the big-hitter French houses will come Tuesday with Dior and Saint Laurent, with a packed calendar confirming Paris's crushing dominance over rivals Milan, New York and London.
And there is no let-up at the end: Chanel opens the final day on October 1 by returning to the vast Grand Palais, the scene of some of Lagerfeld's most jaw-dropping shows, after an absence of four years.
The house is shelling out 30 million euros ($33 million) to stage its shows at the iconic Belle Epoque edifice, which reopened after a major facelift to host fencing and taekwondo at the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games.
With Viard -- long Lagerfeld's right-hand woman -- gone, observers expect a collection drawn from Chanel classics.
In contrast, there could well be fireworks from Alessandro Michele, the mercurial Italian designer who transformed Gucci, who may be keen to make his mark with his debut show for Valentino.
Equally anticipated is French duo Coperni, who are staging their show at Disneyland Paris on the final night, with an after party in the theme park that promises to go on into the wee hours.
The brand's founders, Arnaud Vaillant and Sebastien Meyer, pulled off a coup with their outfit for Belgian singer Angele for the Olympics closing ceremony, and are clearly in a mood to celebrate.
Another hot duo, the Olsen twins, the Los Angeles child actors turned designers, have kept their place for their luxury line The Row in fashion week proper thanks to a cash injection from the owners of Chanel and L'Oreal.
Paris will, however, be without Givenchy this time, with its new British designer Sarah Burton, a stalwart at Alexander McQueen for a quarter of a century, just made creative director.