Bastion of men's fashion

Bastion of men's fashion
Zegna's New York flagship is an architectural tribute to the brand's fabric-making heritage

By Vilma Barr, New York Editor
June 01, 2008

Paul Warchol, New York

We wanted the store to reflect our brand values and history. It is an extension of our stylistic outlook and the personalities of the brands that together form the House of Zegna," said Anna Zegna, granddaughter of founder Ermenegildo Zegna and the company's worldwide director of image and communication, at the March opening of its remodeled and expanded New York retail store at 663 Fifth Ave.

On the former site of a smaller, 6,000-sq.-ft. Zegna store that opened four years ago, the new Ermenegildo Zegna flagship has grown to three floors covering 9,200 sq. ft. of selling space with another 1,000 sq. ft. for stockrooms, offices and a tailor workroom. The brand of luxury menswear is now carried in 64 countries in more than 500 stores, 253 of which are fully owned by the Zegna organization, which is owned and managed by fourth-generation Zegna family members.

The menswear store is a gleaming statement of contemporary Italian fashion and store design. Working with New York-based architect Peter Marino, Anna Zegna helped to guide the development of the textile references that are used almost abstractly to allude to the company's beginning as a wool mill in the Alpine foothills of Italy nearly a century ago. "Ermenegildo Zegna is a historic brand with a great heritage of creating beautiful fabrics," Marino says. "The imagery of woven textiles is the theme utilized throughout the design."

The warp and the weft of looms that turn raw fibers into woven fabric were an influence in the stainless steel sculpture of intertwining cables that are seen through the 900-sq.-ft. double-height window and on the staircase. Boston-based general contractors Shawmut Design and Construction planned the attachment system of the steel cables that form the backdrop of the Fifth Avenue window. "They shimmer like silk threads," says Les Hiscoe, Shawmut's vice president for retail, affirming the visual effect of the final installation. The cable sculpture makes a curious streetside impact through the store's 28-ft.-wide, double-height glass façade.

Customers enter the store through a 20-ft.-high atrium space. Ground floor materials include marble and stone combined with wood and metal. Merchandise selection on this level includes shirts, leather goods, underwear and loungewear, sunglasses, accessories and fragrance, plus an area for the Z Zegna urban design collection. Programmable color-changing lighting illuminates the floor-to-ceiling central stairwell. The second floor houses leisurewear and the Zegna Sport collection. On the top floor is clothing for business and travel. Wardrobe consultants can advise customers in private lounges. Made-to-Measure occupies its own section for those opting to take advantage of Zegna's tailor-made fabric and leather garments. The Couture Room for top-of-the-line custom collections is paneled in Zebrano wood and bamboo-like stucco.

Each floor integrates woods such as walnut, mahogany, bleached teak and ipe (a Brazilian walnut) to add a traditional elegance to glass, stained metals, textured stone and the contemporary custom furnishings. Marino's objective was to create an environment that he describes as "something edgy but one that a conservative, wealthy customer would feel comfortable in as well."

Materials and colors, such as sky-blue and alpine-green stones, reflect Zegna's strong commitment to the natural environment. In the 1930s, the Zegna family established Oasi, a nature preserve near the Northern Italian Alps town of Trivero—and the site of the original fabric production facility.

Striated quartzine stone is used as a wallcovering, interspersed with slender bolts of suiting fabrics laid out on shelves horizontally like oversized art books. Green serpentine stone floors are punctuated with lengths of contrasting aviano stone running from front to back.

The three-story-high volume of space surrounding the staircase and elevator is spanned by a transparent suspension glass bridge poised 44 ft. above the main floor. It links the elevator landing with the corridor across the open space of the store below. Constructed of 5/8-in.-thick structural glass and 1/8-in.-thick stainless steel wires, the design restates the weaving theme.

Hiscoe says that the renovation required considerable structural removal to produce the feeling of volume that Marino had designed for the new interior. "We had to remove an existing low-hanging mezzanine to create the double-height space in the front of the store," Hiscoe points out. "A new vestibule was built to provide weather separation needed at the entry into the store."

The store's lighting plan, designed by Milan, Italy-based Metis Lighting, utilizes recessed halogen and fluorescent fixtures throughout the store. A priority for Shawmut in high-end projects like Zegna is coordinating the built-in lighting with the millwork supplier. "Very often, we have to fly an electrician to Italy or another country overseas to work with the producer before the shipment leaves their plant," Hiscoe points out, to ensure the lighting fixtures fit and are operable.

In addition to the New York location, another Zegna store in the new global concept format opened last October in Milan. The third, also being designed by Marino, is scheduled for Tokyo's Shinjuku district in 2009. CEO Gildo Zegna (Anna Zegna's sister) is said to be considering the opening of more than 100 stores by the end of the decade.