Founded in 1910, the Italian company has morphed into a publicly traded group reporting 2024 sales of 1.94 billion euros comprising the Thom Browne brand and Tom Ford Fashion in addition to its Zegna menswear fashion label.
The Zegna boutique at Dubai Mall courtesy of Zegna
MILAN —The Ermenegildo Zegna Group marks 115 years in business in 2025, and while it stays true to the values of its namesake founder and its heritage, the Italian company has morphed into a publicly traded luxury powerhouse reporting 2024 sales of 1.94 billion euros comprising the Thom Browne brand and Tom Ford Fashion in addition to its Zegna menswear fashion label.
The company was established in 1910 in Trivero, Piedmont as a producer of woolen fabric and textile mill and is now in its fourth generation of family ownership and operation.
A pioneer back in 1938, the founder traveled to New York where he established Zegna Woolens Corporation, the first brand for the distribution of fabrics to tailors abroad.
The first Zegna logotype was registered in 1939.
In the 1940s, Aldo and Angelo Zegna, sons of the founder, joined the company.
Chairman and chief executive officer Gildo Zegna has said that his grandfather, the founder, “was a visionary. He wanted to create the best fabrics in the world. It was the second generation that took us into the clothing business. With the same qualities of style, attention to detail, excellence in product, we introduced ready-to-wear and made-to-measure.”
In 1963, the Ermenegildo Zegna Wool Trophy was established to reward the best breeders of Australian superfine merino wool. Zegna owns its own sheep farms in Australia and uses the fiber produced from their wool for its fabrics and apparel.
In 1980, the first Zegna boutique opened in Paris on Rue de la Paix.
In 1991, Zegna was the first men’s luxury brand to open a boutique in China, in Beijing.
In 2007, the new sprawling headquarters designed by ACPV Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel were unveiled in Milan, as well as the first store designed by Peter Marino, located on Via Montenapoleone.
The group is led by third generation heir Gildo Zegna, who holds the role of chairman and CEO and who over the years spearheaded the development of a strong textile supply chain, which includes the likes of Bonotto and Tessitura Ubertino, among others. He was first named CEO in 1997.
In addition to its own Lanificio Zegna, the group’s textile supply chain includes Lanerie Agnona, Tessitura di Novara, Bonotto and Dondi, all acquired over the years, helping to raise its position in the country in terms of variety and size. In 2018, the family-owned group also finalized the acquisition of a controlling stake in Pelle Tessuta, which specializes in the weaving of leather, and bought a majority stake in Cappellificio Cervo, a historic men’s hat brand based in Biella.
In June 2021, in a sign of an increased effort to protect Italy’s unique supply chain, Zegna and Prada joined forces to acquire a majority stake Filati Biagioli Modesto SpA, each with a 40 percent stake in the cashmere firm.
As part of its strategy to rely on its own manufacturing capabilities and supply chain, the group plans to build a new luxury footwear and leather goods production facility in Sala Baganza, near Parma. The plant is scheduled to be completed by December 2026 and is expected to employ more than 300 people at full capacity in 2027.
Rebranding
In 2021, ahead of its initial public offering in December that year on the New York Stock Exchange, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group rebranded and the menswear label was to be known as Zegna.
Celebrating the company’s family heritage and to mark its new era, the logo was updated in a modern font. With a double-stripe signifier, the road became a key element and a symbol of the new logo, inspired by Road 232 that founder Ermenegildo Zegna built more than 110 years ago in the mountains of Northern Italy, Piedmont, around Trivero where the company is based, planting half-a-million pine trees and creating the Oasi Zegna, surrounded by rhododendrons with views of the Alps.
The road symbol, in a vicuna color that celebrates one of the most precious fabrics used by Zegna, is woven through every collection as a graphic representation.
Located a 90-minute drive from Milan, the Oasi offers views of the Alps, from the Monviso pyramid-shaped mountain to the Monte Rosa massif.
The company remains inspired by its founder and his values, as he built a community around his wool mill and developed a new kind of ethical entrepreneurship.
The Oasi reflects Zegna’s commitment to sustainability and is a constant inspiration for artistic director Alessandro Sartori.
Alessandro Sartori
Artistic director Alessandro Sartori has been instrumental in further developing the Zegna brand. He leverages a long relationship with the company, to which he returned in June 2016 after five years at Berluti. Sartori succeeded Stefano Pilati, who had joined the brand in January 2013, tapped to add a fashion element to the collections.
Pilati was also previously in charge of the Agnona brand, founded in 1953, and controlled by the Zegnas since 1999. In 2020, Zegna sold the majority of Agnona to the Aimone family, another branch of the Zegna family.
Sartori had joined Berluti after eight years at the creative helm of Z Zegna, Ermenegildo Zegna’s more fashion-oriented brand that was launched in 2003 and closed in 2021.
Born and raised in Biella, a mountain town in the northeastern corner of Italy famed for its wool production and not far from Trivero, Sartori joined Zegna in 1989 after graduating from design school in Milan.
The recipient of the WWD Menswear Designer of the Year award in 2022, Sartori was acknowledged for leading the major stylistic shift and commercial success of the Zegna brand.
Alessandro Sartori at Zegna men’s fall 2025 show during Milan Men’s Fashion Week. Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
The connection with Zegna runs deep. Sartori began his career at the Italian group in 1989 as a menswear designer and became creative director of the Z Zegna line in 2003. In 2011, he was appointed artistic director at Berluti in Paris and left five years later to rejoin Zegna in his current role.
The new course of the Zegna brand began in January 2021, as Sartori acknowledged that traditional formalwear had run its course. The world had changed during the pandemic and the designer realized that everyone needed comfort, while staying away from the ubiquitous tracksuits.
To change Zegna’s aesthetic to respond to the need for more comfort while staying stylish, he introduced a new luxury leisurewear, the new suit, keeping the high quality and the craft.
Sartori has further developed his personal take on menswear, and a signature style, experimenting with light shapes and technical finishes, developing a new leisurewear silhouette and subverting under and outer layers, as his shirts became jackets and jackets became shirts.
The designer has enthused about the company’s archives of countless fabrics and textiles that hark back to 1910 — with precise indications on how to reproduce them — and designs from 1968.
The company was also an early adopter of the trend for personalization, which is centered around its made-to-measure initiatives that it offers in everything from suits and sportswear to shoes and leather goods.
The Triple Stitch Sneaker
Since Sartori introduced them in 2020, the shoes have become a blueprint for Zegna’s understated and soft-spoken luxury, with their minimal design, contrasting laces and lightweight flexible sole.
The signature and trademarked shoes have become widely popular also thanks to the Second Skin technology employing glove leather to craft the designs.
Kieran Culkin stars in the Zegna Triple Stitch ad campaign. Courtesy of Zegna
Thom Browne
A key development in the group’s strategy was the acquisition of a majority stake in Thom Browne in August 2018. Rodrigo Bazan is the CEO of Thom Browne.
Since the acquisition, the brand has been expanding globally, shifting from a wholesale to a retail-driven distribution, unveiling new products, from perfumes to eyewear and launching couture.
Thom Browne fall 2025 Giovanni Giannoni
Going Public
On Dec. 20, 2021, the Zegna group went public on the New York Stock Exchange in a deal that gave the fashion group a market capitalization of $2.5 billion. The Italian menswear giant entered into a business agreement with Investindustrial Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition corporation, sponsored by investment subsidiaries of Investindustrial VII LP.
In November 2024, signaling to the market its support and confidence in the group, a holding controlled by members of the Zegna family called Monterubello acquired 913,000 ZGN shares, or about a 0.4 percent stake. Through an additional 2 million ZGN shares, Monterubello raised its stake from 60 percent to 61.2 percent.
IIAC has raised total gross proceeds of $402.5 million in its IPO. Investindustrial has a stake of a little more than 10 percent and about 25 percent is free-floating.
Tom Ford Fashion
In November 2022, the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. said it was acquiring the Tom Ford brand in a transaction valuing the company at $2.8 billion. As part of the deal, the Zegna Group and Marcolin entered long-term licensing agreements for Tom Ford fashion and Tom Ford eyewear, respectively.
Zegna has had the license for Tom Ford menswear since around 2006, but with this deal the company ventured into new territory as it will be producing and distributing all of Ford’s men’s and women’s fashion, accessories, underwear, fine jewelry, childrenswear, textile and home design products. Zegna’s 20-year licensing agreement with Lauder allows for an automatic renewal for an additional 10 years. As part of this transaction, Zegna is acquiring the operations of the Tom Ford fashion business.
Haider Ackermann debuted his first collection for the brand with the fall 2025 collection in Paris as the new creative director of Tom Ford Fashion, succeeding Peter Hawkings, who had joined in April 2023 and exited in July 2024. Lelio Gavazza is Tom Ford Fashion’s CEO.
Tom Ford fall 2025 Courtesy of Tom Ford
The Family
The fourth generation of the family has also joined the company:
Gildo’s sons Edoardo, chief marketing digital and sustainability officer at Zegna, and Angelo, CEO of the EMEA region and global client strategy director at Zegna;
Francesco Trabaldo Togna, retail excellence and business development director at Tom Ford Fashion. Francesco is the son of Elisabetta Zegna, sister of Gildo, and Massimo Trabaldo Togna.
Vittorio Ferraris, sales manager at Lanificio Zegna. Vittorio is the son of Anna Zegna, sister of Gildo, and non-executive director of the board, and Franco Ferraris.
Gildo’s cousin Paolo is non-executive director of the board.
Paolo and Anna Zegna are part of the third generation as is Benedetta Zegna, Gildo’s sister, who holds the role of internal communication and group academy director of the group.
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