This summer the silk road is running in a new direction: leading not from India, but from Italy. And men’s fashion – from suits to shirts, trousers and even raincoats – is being reimagined in the fabric.
Ermenegildo Zegna’s new Passion for Silk range includes sharply tailored jackets with mother-of-pearl buttons (£1,090), matching trousers (£900) and print silk shirts (£880). “Silk has amazing properties,” says Anna Zegna, image director at the Italian label. “It’s versatile and luxurious, but it is also the ideal fabric to create a modern, masculine silhouette.”
Etro, too, showed a large number of silk jackets and suits for spring/summer in everything from bold paisley patterns to conservative plain shades of blue-grey in rougher finishes. Silk “is both practical and esoteric”, says creative director Kean Etro. “It takes colour like no other material and adds richness to the cloth; you can achieve all sorts of effects with it. It can be rough or smooth, dull or shiny.”