Alessandro Sartori’s journey in menswear reads like a series of homecomings—repeatedly returning to places of past triumphs, each time with more authority. After honing his craft at Z Zegna and Berluti, Sartori came back to the Ermenegildo Zegna Group in 2016, this time as the newly anointed artistic director. His mandate? To oversee the creative direction of every Zegna brand. It was a reunion with history, but also a redefinition—a new role for a new era.
Born in Trivero, Italy, Sartori’s roots in fashion started early, sewing alongside his mother in her dressmaking workshop. After graduating from Istituto Marangoni in 1989, Sartori joined Zegna fresh out of design school. The Zegna bond grew from there: his first tenure saw him shaping the youthful, modern spirit of Z Zegna until 2011. Berluti then beckoned, and Sartori turned the historic shoemaker into a true ready-to-wear label, balancing artisanal finesse with a modern sensibility, and expanding the brand’s reach to over 40 boutiques worldwide.
Back at Zegna, Sartori’s approach has been focused on aligning craftsmanship with innovation, crafting a menswear narrative that’s global in reach and inherently Italian in soul. Under his guidance, Zegna ventured deeper into fragrance, rolled out collaborations like the capsule collection with the Chinese Football Association, and embraced new retail dynamics, including a flagship debut on Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion—a savvy move tapping into the expansive Chinese market.
Sartori’s era is defined by expansion—not just geographically, with new stores from New York to Dubai, but creatively. With Thom Browne joining the Zegna family and partnerships with Farfetch and WeChat, Sartori is pushing the brand beyond traditional luxury confines, solidifying Zegna’s place in the modern menswear conversation. And yet, with every forward push, there’s still the DNA of Zegna—an unerring dedication to the details that make menswear matter.