ZEGNA: The last ‘made in Italy’ standing?

In 1929, Ermenegildo Zegna decided to plant trees in the Biellese Alps in Northern Italy — 500,000 trees, in fact. Today, the 100-square-kilometer natural territory is known as Oasi Zegna. Lanificio Zegna, as ZEGNA was called at the time, was primarily a high-quality wool mill focused on producing fine textiles. Evidently, the young Ermenegildo was a visionary. He planted a few strong seeds, and over the past century, Oasi Zegna has been quietly thriving, while ZEGNA the brand has been not-so-quietly booming, to the tune of an Enterprise Value IPO valuation of $3.1 billion in 2021. But it’s doubtful that even Ermenegildo Zegna’s vision could predict that a century later, the soft power of the natural territory would be elevated by the capital force of a modern brand. The spirit of the Oasi Zegna land, down to the genetic makeup of its trees, would be projected onto the walls of the Dubai Opera in the United Arab Emirates — a country that itself is only 54 years old. For ZEGNA’s largest activation to date, hundreds of journalists, celebrities, and VICs gathered smack in the middle of one of fashion’s most important markets to experience the lasting legacy of its founder and Oasi Zegna. “Our generation is a custodian of this amazing sentiment and all I have to do is just tell the story. It's like an untold virgin story that has been there,” says Edoardo Zegna, a fourth-generation of the founding family, and ZEGNA chief marketing, digital and sustainability officer (CMDSO). Oasi Zegna has been a cornerstone for the Zegna family, home to the brand’s largest wool mill and the site of annual Christmas meetings for both family members and shareholders. The family has preserved the territory and its town, which includes a ski resort, hotels, and a museum originally conceived by the founder. As the company’s CMDSO, Edoardo Zegna is guided by bringing emotion and feeling to the consumer experience. It’s fitting, then, that the current generation was the first to bring this story back into the fold. “The best way to pay homage to him is to be as crazy as he was. You need to be kind of mad in 1910 to set up your own mill in the mountains in northwest Italy,” reflects Edoardo Zegna. “And not only the factory, but to give back to the community.” By centering this narrative, ZEGNA is striking a balance that many fashion corporations ignore. It’s the question behind the struggles of this trillion-dollar industry. Can a fashion brand scale without losing its legacy and craftsmanship? With the Villa Zegna traveling concept, the brand seems to answer this with a clear statement: We have something you can’t touch — an authentic founder and a family dedicated to preserving his legacy and vision. “He didn't do it for money, fame, or ego. He did it because it felt right. It’s such an amazing sentiment in today's world where everything is so commercialized, fake, and pushed to the limits,” says Edoardo Zegna. To his point, Ermenegildo Zegna’s reforestation initiative in the early 1900s was likely not driven by a quest for Instagram likes, or even clout. And in a fashion industry plagued by over-saturation and identity crisis, this intentionality is gold. Radical slowness in the age of immediacy: Shanghai, Dubai, and Villa Zegna “The most expensive thing in the world is time. I will have done my job if in 10 years somebody says, ‘ZEGNA is the slowest brand in the world’,” says Edoardo Zegna, backstage at the Dubai Opera House, flanked by racks from the brand’s Summer 2026 show from the night before. “The slowest and most authentic thing the family has ever done is Oasi Zegna,” he adds. Surrounded by a dedicated team weaving back and forth in a draped force of stone and maroon, it’s clear that Edoardo Zegna is not talking about slow shipping. “We move extremely quickly. Our made-to-order service delivers in three weeks globally, wherever you want. It’s more about coming out with a product only when it’s perfect. It’s about testing it. It’s a style of life,” explains Zegna on the concept of slowness. In fact, ZEGNA has historically moved swiftly. In the 1970s, its made-to-measure services set a new standard in menswear. By 1991, it became the first European menswear brand to open a flagship in Beijing. With the opening of Dubai Mall in 2008 the brand was one of the first to set up a monobrand store in the shopping center. And now, it’s staking an even larger claim in a key market where Kering, Richemont, and LVMH are also vying for dominance. This momentum continues with Villa Zegna, a traveling private club designed to express the brand’s values in immersive, intimate experiences. The first edition debuted in Shanghai in 2024 — another strategic location — transforming a three-story industrial building into a full sensory experience. At its center was a field of flax, celebrating Oasi Lino, ZEGNA’s fully traceable fiber and the hero of its summer collections. “It’s crazy how, in clothing, there’s no real way of knowing what you’re wearing,” Edoardo Zegna says. “So, the first Villa Zegna was about giving our guests a sign of our values, and the traceability that’s unique to ZEGNA.” In global markets, Edoardo Zegna is conscious of a hyper-critical consumer who can “see everything,” including inauthentic brands’ attempts to win over the region. “To really be authentic, you cannot localize the content,” says Edoardo Zegna on the brand’s strategy. “There are traditions that can be incorporated, and we are very respectful of every culture, but ultimately we are providing consumers with a slice of Italy. Italy is the best brand in the world. I want to lean into that,” he adds. With the Zegna flagship at Dubai Mall currently the brand’s best-performing global store, the Made in Italy appeal clearly converts. The paradox of slow luxury Since its IPO in 2021, the Zegna Group has moved firmly with acquisitions, forming a modern trinity of menswear: the classic timeless luxury ZEGNA, glossy elegant seductiveness with Tom Ford, and conceptual/modern tailoring with Thom Browne. Through it all, ZEGNA remains unapologetic in its luxury status. While the brand has embedded modern codes of menswear over the past decade — including sneakers and more casual wear — it never fully abandoned itself, not even during the peak streetwear frenzy of a few years ago. Artistic director Alessandro Sartori’s latest collection, debuted in Dubai, felt like a confident settling of the brand’s modern identity. Like ZEGNA’s legacy, it has been earned through consistency and execution — a refined uniform that riffs on the utility of suiting, reimagined in a fluid, lightweight, yet equally functional shell. Against the backdrop of a steaming Dubai, and the grandeur of an opera house turned desert villa, the 300 gram linen suits took on even more resonance. “This has been the largest investment we've done. We brought Milan Fashion Week to Dubai for the first time. We brought our world here,” adds Edoardo Zegna. The event was supported through close collaboration with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), which is also behind fashion events like Dubai Fashion Week and focuses on elevating Dubai not just as a tourism destination, but also as a place to work and live. Like Villa Zegna in Shanghai, the Dubai edition welcomed a guest-list of local and international clientele. Over 250 of the 650 guests were clients. “I think Dubai is the most international city in the world,” adds Edoardo Zegna. This global makeup was especially evident in Villa Zegna’s atelier and boutique, where guests browsed limited-edition pieces displayed alongside details drawn from Ermenegildo Zegna’s original wardrobe. The entrance to this suiting wormhole was an exact replica of the founder’s office, complete with handwritten notes and personal objects. At its center was the debut of Il Conte, a limited-edition fragrance created exclusively for Villa Zegna by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin. While other brands might approach the fragrance category with an accessible price point, ZEGNA is doubling down on its luxury status, releasing only 300 bottles, at a collector’s price point and designed to last a lifetime. In this bottle and its intimate setting lies ZEGNA’s winning formula: storytelling as a bridge for high-quality product and legacy — neither of which will be compromised. “If I had to re-write my title, it would be as a storyteller. I tell my team that we're competing at the dinner table. You're probably going to talk about three things. How do we become one of them?” says Edoardo Zegna. Like its limited edition-bottle, ZEGNA is designed to withstand, guided by an internal family directive determined on driving its legacy forward another 100 years. That directive, unsurprisingly, was seeded at the very Oasi Zegna taking center stage in the brand’s narrative today. While many of its peers waver and true ‘Made in Italy’ labels fade, ZEGNA is set on earning its place as the world’s biggest menswear brand — one dinner party at a time.

ZEGNA: The last ‘made in Italy’ standing?

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Published June 25, 2025

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ZEGNA: The last ‘made in Italy’ standing?