Ermenegildo Zegna

A Tailor's Company That Grew by the Thousand

Ermenegildo Zegna was founded in 1910 in Trivero, Italy by tailor and entrepreneur Ermenegildo Zegna, and the founder's two trades explain the company: tailoring supplied the standard of the product, and enterprise supplied the scale. Zegna quickly gained a reputation for producing fine quality wool suits, and by the end of the 1930s the outfitter employed 1,000 workers. In 1942 the company was split into Ermenegildo Zegna and Sons, and the founder's sons Aldo, born in 1920, and Angelo, born in 1924, joined the company; by 1955 it employed 1,400 workers. Zegna suits, long popular in Italy, were first sold in the United States in 1938, but being so expensive they were sold in limited numbers during the Depression and war years. Aldo and Angelo took control in 1966, when their father died at the age of 74, and Angelo Zegna has been sole president of the Zegna Group since Aldo passed away in 2000.

From Made-to-Measure to Ready-Made and Retail

All Zegna suits were made-to-measure until 1968, when the brothers launched a line of ready-made suits for commercial sale, produced in the factory in Novara, Italy. That date is the turning point of the definition: for 58 years the company's suits were made for the individual customer, and after 1968 the same name was sold ready-made, while the most expensive suits are still made-to-measure. Factories followed the ready-made decision — Spain in 1973, Greece in 1975, closing after two years because it was deemed unprofitable, and Switzerland in 1977, which today employs 800 workers. Retail came next: the first store in Paris in 1980, Milan in 1985, and by the year 2000 there were 300 Zegna retail locations worldwide, with boutiques across Europe, the Americas and Asia, and more recent openings in countries including China, Argentina, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia and India.

Fabric, Output and Price

Zegna's range covers fabrics, suits, neckties, knitwear, shirts, accessories and sportswear, and the yearly output figures show a fabric maker behind the clothing brand: over two million metres of fabric, 350,000 suits, one million pieces of sportswear and 1.5 million neckties a year, with 4,500 workers worldwide. As of 1999 the group had eight manufacturing plants in Italy, two in Spain, three in Switzerland, one in Mexico and one in Turkey. Sales divide 40 percent in the Americas, 40 percent in Europe and 20 percent in Asia. Price places the company plainly: most suits cost US$2,000 to US$3,000, similar to competitors such as Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Versace and Armani; the Z Zegna diffusion line starts at about US$900 with less conservative styling, and the top line is Couture, formerly Napoli Couture.