When it comes to unveiling his collections, Ermenegildo Zegna’s creative director, Alessandro Sartori, likes to be particular. For SS18, he transformed the halls of Milan’s Bocconi university into a snow-swathed runway, while FW18 saw the designer change the courtyards of the city’s Università Statale into his own tangerine-tinted fantasy garden. This time around, it was the turn of the impressive Palazzo Mondadori, conceived by Brazilian architect Oscar Nieymar. 

“This remarkable piece of architecture looks once monumental and immaterial,” read the show notes, “as if suspended, acting as a telling backdrop for a collection that marries sharpness and functional ease with a pervading sense of lightness.” Hence, it served as the ideal backdrop for Sartori’s SS19 offering. Entitled Weightlessness, guests sat either side of a walkway that was bordered by water. With an evening show time, the conditions were just right to stage Sartori’s collection; as the sun set, the windows of the Palazzo reflected the orange-hued clouds, as the models’ silhouettes were cast back off of the surface of the water. 

The collection itself toed the line between streetwear and sophisticated attire – a two-pronged approach which Sartori has come to perfect. It was a technical masterclass, as the designer made use of high-quality fabrics such as textured Tussah silk and tumbled wool to elevate his already luxurious pieces. Structured jackets in stripped-back summer-appropriate checks were paired with casual T-shirts, as loose-fitting darted tracksuit bottoms and two-piece suits printed with obscure patterns were paired with of-the-moment technical trainers.