Ermenegildo Zegna Fear Of God Collaboration, Because Money.

So now Ermenegildo Zegna, an Italian fabric maker, and Fear of God, an America streetwear brand, have decided to collaborate and create a menswear range for consumers.  As the title says, "because money".  It's easy to forget when brands champion ideals greater than consumerism that basically, they are businesses designed to make money.  Thank goodness for "inspired" decisions like these to bring us back down to earth, and remind us that basically, they want your money and they are going to do whatever they can to get it.

First lets analyse what makes sense about this collaboration.  They are both expensive brands, that's about it really.  A pair of Fear of God sneakers goes for a good £850, at least, and Zegna suiting has price points around the £3,000 mark, so we have two luxury brands, but that's where all similarities between these two end.  and that's the problem.  Just because two things are expensive, doesn't mean they will work together.  A good example of people failing to follow this principle can be found in upscale restaurants and bars frequented by global new-money types.  They mix Remy Martin Louis XIII Black Pearl with Cristal 1990, in the same glass, as visibly and as dramatically as possible.  Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

And that principle is the one that has been ignored here.  There have been a number of theories touted in relation to the movement from streetwear towards tailoring.  Fear of God's Lorenzo said of this collab he "wanted more grown up clothing".  Other suggestions have been made such as "the streetwear crowd is tiring of sweats and hoodies".  We debunked this in our article on A COLD WALL and their announcement to pivot towards tailoring.  As we said there, fashion is a business, the only way to stay in business is to keep the customers buying new "stuff", and this collaboration is nothing more than that, a move to make money from ill fittign overcoats and over branded garments.

It shouldn't come as any surprise to long term consumers of Zegna however, they have re-invented themselves more times than most people can keep track of.  They constantly try to cash in on any trend,  previous attempts have been with "technical" clothing that had iPod controls, a sport range, a Z range which was discontinued and brought back, and don't get us started on their concession stores, they feel like TK Maxx outlets.  

Disagree?  Well, go buy some products consumer.  They're out in a few months.