“I think between classic menswear and the most avant garde, there is a huge space that has barely been explored.” Alessandro Sartori dropped this pearl about 35 minutes into an hour-long press conference, which later segued into a longer chat meets try-on session—and all this was before the first look hit the runway. Fittingly for a Zegna show held in Dubai (its first new-collection show outside Italy since the New York Z Zegna shows of the aughts), reporters and reviewers were lavished with an embarrassment of riches angle-wise tonight.

The main thrust was Villa Zegna—the ongoing roadshow event that immerses customers in the backstory of founder Ermenegildo, his creation of Oasi Zegna (see Spring 23’s review for background), and the house philosophy—doubled for this Dubai installment with the runway debut of Sartori’s Spring ’26 collection. As the founder’s grandson Gildo, who is group president and CEO, had observed earlier: “There are around 200 nationalities living in Dubai. There are around 100 million visitors to the Dubai Mall… it’s probably the fastest growing business we have around the world.”

That Dubai itself has become an oasis for those seeking multiple forms of shelter was evident from the diversity of the VICs who rubbed linen-clad shoulders in the palm-fringed and sand floored showspace later. They hailed from Thailand to Mexico, from China to Germany—I spoke with several whose passion for the brand was tangible. Plus there were plenty of locals, too. Sartori said that over the next five days 200 of these clients have booked appointments to preorder made to measure (and in some cases bespoke) variations of the collection we had gathered to see.

That collection was a mirror not only of the audience’s wealth, but reflective of great sophistication too. Sandwiched by two moodily lovelorn performances from James Blake, the runway clothes projected an image that was borderline anachronistic (20th century old money) yet which was created through processes and materials that were borderline futuristic. Washable leathers, a silk suit weighing just 300 grams, and yarns blending perpetually recyclable paper cellulose and linen were amongst the material wonders of clothes that sometimes demanded descriptors from another time: there were tabards, and action shoulders, and meshed leather and knitwear pieces that recalled old-school Gabicci.

The opening section of ultralight linen, poplin, and silk suiting and shirting in washed-out boating stripes came with a wrinkled, crumpled finish that was much more powerfully bohemian than finance bro: broho, maybe. The models’ ages ranged up to 70 (it was a good night for wrinkles) and they often walked on the sand barefoot, clutching their featherlight reverso moccasins in one hand or specially-sized pochette bags. Radical hybrids included a checked leather blouson with notch collar, and a similarly collared field jacket suit that came in multiple beautiful colorways; sand, tobacco, wine (the final look), and two greens of which one came faded and the other fresh.

Sartori said that when he started developing this collection (a process to which he now dedicates nine months instead of the typical six by dividing his design studio into groups), he had been looking at ’60s and ’70s imagery of well dressed Italian gents, often from Turin: Gianni Agnelli was inevitably cited. The result was a collection as studiedly beautiful and as aesthetically nostalgic as a Sorrentino movie, yet which contained the added compulsion of a plot. For you could easily see how the roving, transnational audience here tonight might detect the shoppable allure of wearable kinship in clothes that displayed such ancestrally masculine elements, yet which were materially so innovative, forward thinking, and IYKYK-different. It was in this space, between the classic and the avant garde, that Sartori tonight left fresh design footprints.