The Evolution Of An Italian Menswear Dynasty

Ermenegildo Zegna is one of the definitive and most influential names in men’s tailoring. It’s also one of the most successful, with earnings of more than 1 billion euros a year. The Italian house has over 500 stores worldwide and has become a key player in China, where growth has been astounding. Since opening its first store in Beijing in 1991, the company has seen the Chinese market grow into its number one earner, now reportedly accounting for a third of its revenue.

The house began as a modest textile producer in 1910. Eighteen-year-old Ermenegildo, son of a watchmaker and one of ten children, opened a fabric mill in Trivero, a small town in the alpine foothills near Turin. Zegna’s woolens were extraordinarily well made and splendidly diverse in weight and style, and soon the company was supplying fabrics to fashion labels and tailors around the world, as it still does. Read more at Maxim.