A Match Made In Heaven

Esquire Singapore speaks to Ermenegildo Zegna’s Alessandro Sartori and Fear of God’s Jerry Lorenzo on how the two brands came to collaborate, and what this collection means for menswear.

- Asri Jasman

One’s known for pushing the boundaries of modern tailoring, while the other creates luxurious clothes borne from street culture. On the surface, they seemingly couldn’t have come from more different worlds. Yet, their coming together, as we learned in this exclusive interview, was a natural fit.

ESQ: How did this collaboration come about? Were you guys having drinks at a bar?

JERRY LORENZO: I don’t drink anymore, but it was something like that. It was just a casual conversation and we were introduced by a friend. Obviously, Ale’s track record and his career speak for themselves. And so, having a good idea of where he was creatively and not really thinking of a collaboration, but just kind of knowing that we have a similar perspective although we play in different worlds just based on the fabrics and materials that we play with. With Fear of God, we make all of our collections in downtown [Los Angeles] so we play mostly with denim, jersey, cotton and canvas fabrications and really focus on fabric weight, wash and treatments. Whereas Ale, on the other hand, is a master tailor who plays with different fabrics. But I think our perspectives on those different worlds were very similar.

ALESSANDRO SARTORI: A mutual friend of ours suggested that we should meet. We met in a diner for coffee actually, and realised we like each other. And here we are two years later. But it was really organic. It was not like a contract but a good meeting between people who respect each other and now, they love each other. This whole process was about that: mutual respect.

ESQ: Great. What was it when you were discussing a potential collaboration that made you think this is the perfect partner for you to collaborate with?