Ermenegildo Zegna - History

History

Ermenegildo Zegna founded the company in 1910 in Trivero in the Biellese Prealps. Zegna quickly gained a reputation for producing fine quality wool suits, and by the end of the 1930s, the Wool Mill employed 1,000 work ers. In 1938 the Zegna Woollens Corporation was set up in New York although exports were not helped by the privations of war.

When Ermenegildo's sons Aldo (born 1920) and Angelo (born 1924) joined the company in 1942, it was renamed Ermenegildo Zegna and Sons. By 1955, the company employed 1,400 workers.

Ermenegildo died in 1966 at the age of 74. Aldo and Angelo took over the business and two years later they launched a line of ready-made suits, produced in Zegna's factory in Novara.

Another factory was opened in Spain in 1973 while a Zegna plant opened in Switzerland in 1977, which today employs about 1000 workers. As of 1999, the Zegna Group had eight manufacturing plants in Italy, two in Spain, three in Switzerland, one in Mexico and one in Turkey. While many Zegna suits are factory produced, the majority of premium suits are still made-to-measure.

The first boutique was opened in Paris in 1980, followed by Milan in 1985. In 2010 their numbers had grown to 560 boutiques of which over 300 controlled by the company, Ermenegildo Zegna Zegna's flagship boutique locations are mostly found in the United States, Europe, Japan and China with megastores in Atlanta, Costa Mesa, California, New York City, Beverly Hills, Houston, Bogotá, Boston, Las Vegas, Lima, Mexico City, London, Milan, Paris, Manila, Madrid, Tokyo, São Paulo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Santiago de Chile, Ulaanbaatar and Bangkok. Another flagship will open at Westfield Sydney in Sydney in 2011.

Aldo died in 2000, but Angelo remains the Honorary President of the company. Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody advertised Zegna's Spring/Summer 2003 and Fall/Winter 2003 lines.