‘We can do something that nobody else in fashion can do’: Gildo Zegna on the true price of luxury

Gildo Zegna is weighing the parallels between sport and running a global fashion business. “Sport, for me, is about self-improvement and being competitive in a fair way,” he says. “It’s about preparing your mind and body to reach new records.” It’s a neat way of summing up what the executive director of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group is looking to do as he grows a family business – now in its fourth generation – that comprises his eponymous label, as well as the more recent additions of Thom Browne and Tom Ford. 

An avid tennis player and skier (his wife jokes that when they’re in the Alps, he insists on setting the alarm for 07.00), 70-year-old Gildo believes that the secret to making sure the group reaches new peaks is being attentive to clients, whose brand loyalty isn’t a given. That might explain why a group of what Zegna calls its top customers is assembled in Oasi Zegna – a sprawling mountain parkland where the company has planted hundreds of thousands of trees over decades. An hour-and-a-half’s drive from Milan, it’s also where Gildo’s grandfather started the business and where its original wool mill from 1910 still operates. Many of them can trace their relationship to Zegna, a menswear label renowned for its tailored look and high-end fabrics, back decades.

A lot is made in fashion circles of very important customers (VICs) – and for good reason. According to Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore, there are currently about 600,000 VICs globally who are prepared to spend €50,000 a year on luxury goods. And while they might only represent 1 per cent of the market today, they generate 21 per cent of its spending. Moreover, their numbers are rising by an average of 10 per cent year-on-year, making them vital to the future growth of the high-fashion sector. Zegna has its own name for its top-spenders (“Zegna Friends”) but points out that its VICs are not necessarily one and the same. 

Regardless, what is clear after spending several days with Zegna’s inner circle is that they’re more than simple numbers to the brand. Gildo is convinced that putting on a special event isn’t just about good food and unique experiences. It’s also a chance for guests to absorb what Zegna stands for. That is precisely why Gildo talks about the strength that comes from “playing at home” in a place such as Oasi Zegna. “We have an incredible world here,” he says. “We can do something that nobody else in fashion can do.” Indeed, as the group is guided around Casa Zegna and the mountain mill, it’s hard not to be seduced by the history. “In some ways you will be the guest of our founder,” says Simone Ubertino, Zegna’s patrimony and culture director, as he walks with the guests. 

The visit, timed just before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics kick off, allows guests to see the milling machinery, learn about the raw materials and the work that goes into quality control, making it about as far from fast fashion as you can get. “We [let guests] experience the importance of ingredients, [which include] traceable material and the local [soft] water,” says Gildo. “It’s a very complicated process to create yarn, then fabric and then clothes. It’s essential for customers to understand that Zegna is costly but not expensive.” The visit clearly rubs off on one of the guests, Riccardo from Lugano in Switzerland, who tells Monocle that the tour has given him a new understanding of the work involved and, therefore, the price point. 

Still, the VICs’ visit to Oasi Zegna is about more than seeing the production process. With the Winter Olympics in the air, the group also has a chance to head up to the ski slopes after a heavy dumping of snow has left perfect pistes under blue skies. What’s more, they’re accompanied by two former Italian ski champions: downhill specialist Kristian Ghedina and ex-Olympic ski competitor Paolo de Chiesa – both of whom had regaled their audience with tales from their careers the night before. On the slopes, De Chiesa looks impeccable in a brown corduroy Zegna ski jacket; as does Ghedina, dressed in a black cashmere jacket. They’re not the only ones. Madrid-based Mexican customer, Armando, who traces his relationship with the brand back to 1985, is also sporting Zegna outerwear with a removable gilet underneath.

Gildo recently switched roles, becoming executive chairman after two decades as CEO. He remains across every facet of the business, from personally testing pieces to ensuring the quality of customer service. When it comes to the latter, he says that Zegna is evolving with the direction that fashion and retail are heading. “In the past, if you asked me what sort of business Zegna was, I would have said that we were in the textile business, then the fashion business and more recently the luxury business,” he says. “Now I would say that we’re in the business of luxury hospitality because the customer is on our mind.”

Every VIC that Monocle chats with mentions their relationship with their local Zegna shop. In Madrid, for instance, the staff have learned exactly what Armando likes and know to “set the pieces aside and arrange an appointment”. That close relationship explains why Armando had bespoke Zegna suits made when his son got married in Mexico City and why Riccardo goes shopping at the brand with his children. 

A trip that started in the mountains culminates at sea level, in the hospitality section of Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. As flashing wristbands worn by the thousands of people make the mass pulse and sparkle, one of the invited Germans remarks that being here is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” – and it’s hard to disagree. With music echoing throughout the stadium, Gildo gets to the crux of how he feels. “We’re very proud that Zegna is part of our top customers’ lives,” he says. As for his guests? They look rather happy about it too.