On the occasion of the XXI "Business Culture Week", for one Sunday, the Ermenegildo Zegna Foundation unveiled the precious samples of the Lanificio Zegna, an example of tradition, style and innovation.
In line with the theme "At business school", the archivists of "Casa Zegna", assisted by the students of the ITS - Tessile Abbigliamento Moda TAM of Biella, recounted in great detail some of the most significant contents of the archive, underlining some fundamental passages in the history of textiles and international fashion.
Far from being a mere museum, the archive, with its 2,000 volumes, represents a point of reference for the creative team of the entire Zegna Group. Symbol of innovation and tradition are Count Ermenegildo's meticulous notebooks, small Moleskines of yesteryear where, from the birth of the wool mill in 1910, he neatly collected notes on fabrics, fashions, weaves, yarns, technical innovations and commercial strategies.
Not only that, each fabric in the subsequent samples has been carefully cataloged and equipped with every detail to be able to reproduce it. Evidence of this is the legendary "Fabric No. 1", handled with white gloves and carefully described by the students of the "ITS TAM"; a black and white grisaille with vertical decoration woven in four-piece Batavia weave, weighing 500 grams per linear metre; nowadays absolutely unsuitable for the summer season. On the occasion of the company's centenary, the designers of the wool mill, with skill and creativity, carried out a restyling operation on the heirloom, keeping its style characteristics intact but updating its weight and consistency.
The fabric created, “1910 Centennial 2010” weighing only 270 grams per metre, made with 15 micron extra-fine Merino wool, with a fineness unimaginable at the time of Count Ermenegildo, had an extraordinary sales success in all Zegna stores around the world.
Another fabric that demonstrates the foresight and technology of the wool mill is the “Centoventimila” fabric dated 1961. Following the tradition of not branding its products with the “Super Number's” system which attributes a specific fiber fineness to the fabric expressed in microns, the spoken selvedge of the fabric tells us that already in those years the wool mill was capable of producing yarns with a count of Nm 2/120.
A result which, due to its complexity and regularity, is not very easy to achieve even today. Nm 2/120 means that it is possible to obtain a 120 kilometer long thread with one kilogram of fiber which will then be twisted into two ends.
In addition to the collections produced in the Lanificio, the archive contains other extraordinary surprises; The 169 volumes making up the “Claude Frères” collection are neatly cataloged on the wooden shelves, an uninterrupted gallery of European fabrics from 1859 to 1938.
The “Claude Frères” were producers of “Nouveautès Textiles”, fashion trend magazines of the time, from which, yesterday as today, designers drew inspiration to always create new collections. The fabrics contained are surprising, much more flamboyant and patterned than what one might expect from fabrics from other centuries. The comparison suggested by the ITS Tam students is curious and creative and, alongside the old and voluminous books, they showed us the same concept of instrument created today. The Claude brothers would certainly have been amazed by graphene yarns, plasma fabrics and ceramic effects.
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