Alessandro Sartori is an Italian fashion designer, and the artistic director of Italian brand Zegna. Previously, he was creative director of Z Zegna and artistic director of Berluti.
In 1989, Sartori began his career at Zegna and worked as a men’s wear designer for many years.[2]
In 2003, Sartori became creative director of the newly created "Z Zegna" at Ermenegildo Zegna. He presented the Z Zegna first runway show in New York City in February 2007.[3] Z Zegna successfully appeared at five New York Fashion Weeks, and then moved to Milan starting in June 2009.
On 1 July 2011 Sartori was appointed as artistic director at Berluti with the aim of creating a luxury total wardrobe.[4]
On January 20, 2012 Sartori unveiled his first collection at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, with footwear occupying rows of chairs lined up as if for a fashion show. Women's Wear Daily stated "It was an impressive debut." "Sartori’s collection was worn by a multigenerational cast of models in vignettes that telegraphed the Berluti lifestyle: playing chess in the library of a country chateau; having cocktails in a groovy apartment; gathering with friends under a full moon for a midnight shoe-polishing party, with Dom Pérignon as the shining agent (something serious Berluti devotees actually do)."[5]
Sartori's last collection for Berluti, presented during Paris Menswear Fashion Week, on January 22, 2016 was viewed as his best collection for the brand; Luke Leitch, on Vogue.com wrote: "This collection contained almost as many potential angles to elucidate excellence in menswear as there were grains of volcanic sand on the runway".[6]
On February 5, 2016 Ermenegildo Zegna Group announced that Sartori was appointed artistic director with responsibility across all Zegna brands and all creative functions.
[10][11] Sartori officially joined the Ermenegildo Zegna Group in June 2016. His first fashion show was the Ermenegildo Zegna Couture Autumn/Winter 2017 collection at HangarBicocca.[12] In 2019 Sartori chose wide, urban spaces in Milan – such as Stazione Centrale and former production plant Area Falck – as stages to his collections.[13][14]
In January 2019 for the first time, during the Ermenegildo Zegna XXX Winter 2019 fashion show, Sartori unveiled the #USETHEEXISTING project, which is entirely made with innovative processes from pre-existing sources.[15]
Under his direction, in 2017 Zegna opened its first Bespoke Atelier in Milan.[16]
Since many years, Sartori has partnered with Benjamin Millepied, co-founder of the L.A. Dance Project. In 2015/2016 he designed costumes for Millepied's team at the Paris Opera Ballet.[17] In 2017 all the dancers of the L.A. Dance Project performed in Marfa, Texas, wearing Ermenegildo Zegna Couture custom made looks for a streaming life worldwide premiere.[18] In 2019, all dancers from the L.A. Dance Project performed the world premiere of Bach Studies (part 2) at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, wearing Ermenegildo Zegna XXX custom designed looks by Sartori.[19]
Since 2018 Sartori started designing the costumes for Genny Savastano, one of the main characters of the Italian series Gomorra, played by Salvatore Esposito.[21]
In 2019 Zegna launched the “What does it mean to be a man today?” campaign, a first act featuring Mahershala Ali and Nicholas Tse, focused on the actual meaning of modern masculinity, followed by few more until Fall/Winter 2021. Among the other international talents involved in the campaign the model, singer and songwriter Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis and his mother five time César Award-winning actress Isabelle Adjani.[31]
In 2022 Zegna presented THE 232 brand value campaign, involving its family of visionaries including Italian musician Marracash, actor Isaac Hempstead Wright and movement director Yagamoto.[32]