Strong Suits

Alessandro Sartori of the legendary house of tailoring Ermenegildo Zegna and Jerry Lorenzo of streetwear label Fear of God are launching one of fall’s most anticipated menswear collaborations. Turns out the unlikely duo have more in common than you might expect

- Rosana Lai

On paper, the bios of Alessandro Sartori and Jerry Lorenzo could not read more differently. Sartori is the 54-year-old artistic director of Ermenegildo Zegna, one of Italy’s largest tailors with more than a century of history. Long before his formal education at the Istituto Marangoni Milan, he created his first suit, a sharp blue number, at the age of 15 in the hopes of impressing his family. “It took six months to make, and it was a complete disaster—I can’t look at it now because it’s full of mistakes, but I thought it was beautiful at the time,” he says, chuckling at the memory.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, is the designer behind eight-year-old, Los Angeles-based streetwear label Fear of God, beloved by the likes of Kanye West, who sported the label at the 2016 Met Gala and collaborated with Lorenzo on his early Yeezy releases. He is open about his lack of fashion credentials, having started in marketing for sports agencies before throwing parties for hiphop’s finest, like Pusha T and Kid Cudi. “I thought I was going to be a sports agent,” he says. “I still don’t really like being called a designer.”

They met two years ago while Lorenzo was in Milan for business and immediately bonded over more than just fashion. “We realised that we saw the world in very similar ways even though we come from very different backgrounds,” says Lorenzo. Discovering their curiosity for each other’s expertise, the designers began speaking of a collaboration that could fill the gap in today’s menswear for relaxed tailoring, or rather the sweet spot between the casual and formal extremes of their respective brands.