The Portofino Spring Regatta hints at the status of Ermenegido Zegna in men's fashion. Frequented by King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Charles the Aga Khan and the social elite of touring internationals, the Portofino Regatta is the most fashionable yachting event in the world: Ascot on the water. While a day at Ascot would reveal all the great names in menswear, at Portofino one label is quite outstanding.

Out on the course, the Italian Yachting Team in their customised sportswear do battle for the Ermenegildo Zegna Trophy, the name behind 70% of all fine menswear in the world. Zegna, one of Italy's last great family held textile firms are further distinguished as the makers of the fine woollen cloth used to create Dunhill suits and the collections of Perry Ellis and Ralph Lauren.

Since the 1970s, Zegna's own line of menswear has become the international benchmark for consummate tailoring and sophisticated, classic style, asserting a commitment to quality with the Italians unique sense of subtlety and lightness. They make a cashmere suit so delicate that it must be hung in a closet for six days after wearing so the fabric may recover. Ferraris are upholstered in Zegna wool, Pope John Paul II insists on having his white vestments made by Zegna, of Zegna fabric.

Zegna has burgeoned from a simple philosophy of perfection in all raw materials; cashmere from inner Mongolia, mohair from South Africa, silk from China, cotton from Egypt and fine merino wool from Australia - wherever the finest natural fibre is grown. Each year Zegna awards a prize for the finest wool in Australia (they are in their own right the largest buyer of superfine wool), mohair in South Africa and in a somewhat less formal ceremony, they acknowledge the herdsmen of Inner Mongolia who grow the finest cashmere.

At the home of Zegna, in the alpine foothills ninety minutes north-west of Milan by car, even the shepherds wear tailored shirts and trousers. Trivero is Zegna's village kingdom, dominated by the white bulk of the Zegna complex. Having grown to a $150 million-a-year company with 2,500 employees, almost everyone in Trivero is in some way associated with the business.

Trivero today is virtually what Ermenegildo built for his workers, sharing his success firstly through providing a clean and efficient working environment and then housing, a hospital and maternity wards, a library, a public swimming pool and even a ski resort. There is an Ermenegildo Zegna scenic drive of 26 kilometres, planted with tens of thousands of trees and shrubs that is one of the region's most popular tourist attractions.

The original Zegna home and palatial estate is built right alongside the complex, suggesting that in the days when the first Ermenegildo was building his company, there was no distinction between home and factory.

Ermenegildo Zegna began weaving with small samples of pure wool in 1912 when the British cloth mills dominated the world clothing industry and held a virtual monopoly on the finest woollens in the world. No Italian gentleman, or for that matter any worldly gentleman would have dreamed of wearing anything else, as thousands of independent weavers were left scattered throughout Northern Italy.

It wasn't long after that an awakening demand for creativity introduced the new concept of fashion to the clothing industry and while the British dominance began to slide under the changing conditions, the Italians, with their special aptitude and flair for design and innovation, picked up from where the British had left off. Ermenegildo's entrepreneurial feat was to unite all the independent weavers and put their skills to work on woollens of a refinement unprecedent in Italy. At the forefront of this transformation was the demand for quality fabrics and Ermenegildo Zegna slowly claimed the British market and the world for himself.

Today the transformation is complete. What was the family's dining room is now the office of Ermenegildo's son Count Aldo Zegna, chairman of the company who, with brother and president Angelo, continue to guide the expansion and diversification of the Zegna dynasty now in the precarious process of being handed down to the next generation.

In Australia recently to present the award for the finest super fine wool was Paolo Zegna, son of Aldo. Before entering the family business, Paolo studied economics and social sciences in Geneva before doing his military training as an officer in the alpine troups: "The last holiday I had in my life," he jokes. After a stint in Spain in charge of informal operations, Paolo has returned to Trivero and the cloth division. His cousin Ermenegildo, or Gildo as he is known to his friends, heads the clothing division, having returned from New York where he established the first Zegna beachhead in the new world, a sober minimalist showroom in Manhattan, now run by an appointed manager. Gildo's sister Anna is in charge of Communications.

The sheep country of Australia is no foreign landscape to Paolo who, eight years ago, spent three months living on a sheep station and studying the industry with the Australian Wool Corporation and the CSIRO carrying on the tradition of the family which has always been wedded with wool. Paolo's father is recognized as a world expert.

"It was a great experience." Paolo said, "the first my father wanted me to have before going into the family business. I spent three wonderful months and it was extremely important because everything begins with the wool. The award is important because it maintains the link across the ocean with the growers, because we face the same problems in the market and together can find the common solutions."

The Zegna award for the finest superfine wool grown in the country was instigated seventeen years ago. While people in the wool field are making a lot of money today, at that time the industry was in strife. The Superfine Wool Grower's Association with the representatives of the three major superfine wool buying countries, Italy (represented by Zegna), Japan and the United Kingdom, promised to promote wool at their own expense. Zegna bought more wool than they could possible use to support the growers and introduced their annual award, with the assurance and real incentive that they would buy the winner's crop.

Balancing their role as suppliers of fabrics, with their own sense of modern innovation, the textiles now represent only 30% of the group's interests. The Ermenegildo Zegna label now comprises their own line of menswear, sportswear, accessories and informal wear, striking a note exactly in the centre of the fashion spectrum.

"We make every conceivable item of menswear other than leather for the international man's lifestyle," says Paolo. "Whatever it is, it is important to meet the customer's requirements by expanding because a man's lifestyle is always expanding: it never stops. When it expands we cater for it. Our sales have shown consistent increases not only in volume but in diversity. More and more, the retailers are buying complete outfits. This is the case in Australia especially. Australian men have never been famous for dressing themselves but they are taking an interest in their appearance and are demonstrating it by buying all the various items which make up a man's wardrobe."

The firm's greatest challenge as it started out on the diversification trail was to ensure that the same perfection achieved in the fabrics was continued in the finished garments. When they established a hi-tech factory across the border in Switzerland, Zegna became among the first to use the computerized cutting of patterns for individual orders and store the personal measurements of clients throughout the world. To maintain the inimitable quality of a hand-finish, every day tailors from the north of Italy come across the border to instill in the clothes the perfection of their craft practised in the Piedmont valleys since the 12th Century.

Paolo stresses the importance of the family's continuing involvement in the business. "We work with many other people of course, but we also work as a team and have our own ideas. The members of the family complement each other or from a clash of views policies emerge. We have inside ourselves tremendous pride in being part of the family and the business. We recognize many good things that were done by my grandfather and by our parents and we would like to continue the tradition. With the example of our grandfather's ideas we go forward. Even as the third generation we are faced with new problems and still have a lot to learn.

ZEGNA: ON THE CASHMERE TRAIL

Anyone who has ever worn a cashmere coat, or even run their fingers over the fibres as soft as newborn skin would know the pleasure that only this most highly prized of natural materials can bring. Would that the mere transposing of the two words afford as accessible an avenue to the unique warmth that cashmere provides, but in truth it take much more than mere cash to secure. The Cashmere Route is a fascinating journey that begins deep in the mountainous highlands of provincial China and ends in the design studios of the world's foremost fashion houses.

Cashmere is today far more prized than the much sought after silk that brought Marco Polo to the lands of the East many centuries ago. It was only a mere fifty or so years ago that the original cashmere fibres that had once been woven and spun only as a blend of other fibres, underwent a dramatic transformation. The fashion sensibilities of the Western world declared that the famous Silk Route should become a thoroughfare for transporting cashmere to the waiting Europeans. From the lands, where the infamous Genghis Khan once roamed to its present day status as one of the costliest raw materials on earth, the raw cashmere fibres (and not Kashmire, as the genus may be inferred) have escalated in price two and a half times faster than oil over the last ten years, and it is highly probably that it will keep rising.

The trail is a long and arduous one that begins in the remote farms and goat-rearing communes of Inner Mongolia, from where the farmed fleece will be transported many miles on the backs of mules, men and horses to the collection points established by the Chinese government. The journey continues by train or truck to Canton's annual trade fair from where the cashmere is shipped to Hong Kong and then to the ports of Europe. Ironically, the 20th century trip with all the supposed safeguards and convenience offered by a technological age, is far less secure than the old days of the silk route when the Mongols would boast that a caravan contained a virgin and an enormous load of gold would face no threat of danger in crossing the Khan's lands alone.

The history of cashmere is not as colourful and exotic as one might think the origins of such a costly commodity would be. This is largely due to the fact that the Chinese were traditionally concerned with silk as the most valuable fabric, relegating the goat's wool to essentially utilitarian purposes. The Mongols are known as quite a secretative people irrespective of the ferocity of their volatile ancestor, and as such the exact origins of the fleece is largely left to speculation to discern. It is likely then, that approximately 1,000 years ago, the Mongols began using the fleece to make scarves as well as blankets. Ironically, it was the Westerners who sought out cashmere as a means from which to make clothes of these softest of fibres.

The first Western Connoisseur, was one Josephine de Beauharnais, who was so enamoured of her cashmere shawls, soft enough to pass through the circumference of her rings, that she would not allow the war-torn barricades of Napoleon's armies to deprive her of the fibres. It was only in the 1920s that fashion declared cashmere 'the' fabric in which to be outfitted thus instigating a timeless fashion truth that contributes not a little to the maintenance of classicism in clothing. Interestingly, even today, one will only find a cashmere jumper in China in the tourist outlets.

The areas known as Inner Mongolia, to the north of Peking along the boarder between Outer Mongolia and the Soviet Union is mountainous land with vast steppes bounded by the barrenness of the Gobi desert. In the remotest parts of this area, where it is said by the Chinese that only a Mongol could survive, the land is arid with monotonous expanses of grass sandwiched by desert. bitterly cold in the winter and relatively hot in the summer months despite the high altitude, it is here that the Mongolian mountain goat lives and produces their "golden fleece", as it has come to be known. Their origins are vague, in keeping with those of their Mongolian herds, but they appear to be a hybrid, the result of early inter-breeding experiments with surrounding species. They are a self-sufficient species, neither feral nor domestic but they are uniquely built to weather the unforgiving conditions of both temperature and terrain - they can in fact be found standing perfectly balanced on a vertical slope to feed.

Each year, in May, the goats and their keepers come together for the shearing like implement that rakes off the undercoat of the goat's hair. It is this all-important undercoat, the thick downy layer nearest the skin from which the cashmere is made. Hidden by the folds of the tough, shaggy, outer layer which all goats possess, it is only a very few species of which the Mongolian goat is one, that harbour the soft cashmere fleece underneath. The climate, in particular the freezing winter temperatures is entirely responsible for the fleece: the icier the winds, the softer and warmer the undercoat and as such the forbidding Mongolian steppes offer the ideal combination of elements.

The fineness of a material is largely responsible for the best of fabrics - the best quality cashmere is only 14 microns in fineness which means that to make a mere one millimetre in width, 70 cashmere fibres must be laid side by side. Apart from the obvious considerations of texture, it is the scarcity of cashmere fleece that commands lofty prices and tireless efforts in securing it. Where 6 million kilos of cashmere are produced each year, a roughly half will be of useable quality. Each goat produces only 100 g per year (roughly sufficient to make one scarf) and the best of the fleece is obtained when the goat is between three and five years old. During its lifetime, one goat will supply only enough cashmere to make one pullover - an overcoat demands the fleece of 20 goats.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that living off the land, sheep became a far more profitable industry for the herders and they gradually began to replace the goats, keeping them only for their meat and milk. While Western designers attempt to satisfy the ever increasing demand for the finest quality cashmere (tenfold in ten years), the amount of goats in Inner Mongolia has decreased dramatically from 20 million twenty years ago to a mere 8 million today. Compounding this is an alarmingly high mortality rate of 50% amongst the newborn goats. The implications of this situation to the buyer means that companies like Ermenegildo Zegna who are one of China's biggest purchasers of cashmere, will pay an astonishing US$168 per kilo for the golden fleece this year. When one considers the amount of cashmere used in Zegna production, the outlay is rather staggering.

In an attempt to encourage growth in the industry, the Chinese government has attempted to create incentives for the herders, by increasing the payments to communes. Zegna have also instituted ties with both the government and the communes in order to safeguard the future of this beautiful fibre. The Ermenegild Zegna Cashmere Trophy works as an incentive to the producers of the Cashmere Route and representatives of the company trek to the remote region to present it each year to the breeders of what is considered the finest fleece. Added bonuses such as a Four Wheel Drive vehicle or perhaps a convoy of bicycles are included as prizes. Preceded by the Wool Perpetual Trophy instituted in 1962 and awarded annually to the best producer of merino wool in Australia, and a similar trophy awarded to the producers of the finest mohair in South Africa, the Cashmere Trophy hopes to encourage excellence in the production of the finest natural fibres.

Five years ago, Zegna secured an advantage over the many company directors who annually come to China to vie for the finest fleece. Where the traditional policy is to await the decision of the Chinese government as to how much may be purchased and at what unconditional price, Zegna received special status allowing them the first rights in the purchase of the highest quality fleece.

As designers the world over delight in the renewed interest in classic cashmere amongst fashion cognoscenti, many miles away in the icy steppes of a land whose people still bear the same physicality as their fiery ancestor, the Mongolian goatherders go quietly about their business in all probability, blissfully unaware of all the fuss, with the exception perhaps, of the gold and silver Zegna trophy hanging proudly on the commune walls.

BEST SUITED

When the Pope addresses the crowds from the balcony of the Vatican, he is dressed in Zegna. At the gambling tables of Monte Carlo, on the elegant boulevards of Rome and Paris, and in the major boardrooms of Australia, Japan and in the U.S., men whose sense of style is reflected by their wardrobes wear the Zegna trademark.

From a humble beginning in 1912 when Ermenegildo Zegna started his textile business in Trivero, Italy, the Zegna name has become synonymous with the finest fabrics - fabrics which have made Zegna a world leader in men's fashions.

Vive speaks with Anna Zegna, who with her brother Gildo and cousin Paolo, form the next generation of Italy's most famous textile family.

Anna talks abut life with the Zegna family, the fascinating history and traditions of the company and the future of Zegna as a powerful international force in men's fashion.

VIVE: People around the world are familiar with the name Zegna, but who are the people behind the name?

ZEGNA: My father Angelo looks after the financial side of the business as well as the general strategy and the foreign markets. My uncle Aldo, on the other hand, is more involved in the production of the textiles and overseeing the concept side of our operations. It was m y father and his brother in fact who made the decision to move the family business into the clothing area after their father died in 1968. My brother Gildo is the manager of the clothing division and looks after our two Italian factories as well as the Spanish and Swiss factories. And Paolo, my cousin, is involved in the marketing side of the textile business. For my part, I'm involved in communications; the image, publicity and advertising. We work together as a family on strategy planning for the business and have a family board in place to make all the decisions necessary in the running of the company.

VIVE: It must have been fascinating to grow up in the midst of all this activity, with your father and uncle redirecting the company and seeking new markets. What stands out in your mind about the period prior to the time the company really burgeoned in the late '60s and early '70s?

ZEGNA: I am 32-years-old so I was only very young at the time, however, of all the things that were happening in this period I remember most vividly the sight of the raw materials, the dyes and the colours which fascinated me. I can remember, too, the smell of washed wool which was very strong and the sight of the enormous looms which seemed to dominate everything.

VIVE: As you were exposed to the workings of the business from a very early age, were you always expected to take an active role in the family company or was this a choice you made at a particular time?

ZEGNA: In a way, as children we were always involved in the family business. It was all a game then because we used to go skating I the factory's corridors or go jumping into the wool. My father always explained to Gildo and I what it was he was involved in and made a point of showing us how to appreciate the silkiness of the wool, the elegance of the cashmere and we became familiar with the beautiful clothes and textiles the business produced at that time.

Neither my brother, cousin nor I were compelled to join the business, rather it was something that progressed naturally from all this early exposure. The business and the family were for us the same thing. In fact I see this as an advantage that we have brought forward into our business and it is part of our strength.

I really only wanted to get into the business after doing something on my own and not simply because I was the daughter of the owner. So I joined Gianni Versace where I spent two years in their international P.R. department and learned a lot about a whole range of things associated with fashion and creative design in general. It was lucky for me to be working so closely with such an important and creative designer and I owe him a lot in terms of my present knowledge. It was a great way to develop self-assurance, meet people and learn that no matter what name you have it is the knowledge and the personality you reflect which affect your business.

It was during my time there that my family asked me to join the business and I was a little reluctant to leave Versace because I really enjoyed my job. Beyond this, too, was the fact that, being a woman, I didn't very much like the idea of getting into a business which catered exclusively for men. but of course I knew and appreciated the excellence of what Zegna was doing and so I did make the move, about five years ago now.

VIVE: Are there aspects of Zegna which make it fundamentally Italian, setting it apart from, say, a French fashion company?

ZEGNA: I don't know whether it is a matter of the different countries producing a particular mentality or whether it is more a case of the personalities behind the companies which really make the difference. I think that the difference really lies in whether or not the business is family-owned. It is all about the involvement of the individual family members and the way they contribute to the philosophy which guides the operations of the company.

There is a feeling within our company that we are all working toward the same goal and achieving the same objectives. There is a sense of everyone sharing common values and these are reflected in our products. We are unique in that we want to stay very close to the same roots that my grandfather had in the very beginning.

VIVE: Zegna is firmly established today as a leader in both the textile and clothing industries, but what was it in your grandfather's day that set it apart?

ZEGNA: What was unique was the manner in which the cloth was finished. The water used was and is of fundamental importance in the process, because the manner in which the wool is washed affects the final quality of the fabric and my grandfather knew this. What he also realised is that the way one lets the wool 'riposare' or rest after washing is vital to the overall consistency of the fabric and hence the garment produced. Wool is a natural fibre so you must allow it to have a certain time to achieve its final aspect, otherwise the finished product will still be moving and unsettled. There are a fund of little details which must be attended to throughout the entire process. There is more to producing high quality fabrics than a collection of machines. There is the fibre itself and the people who work it. They must be intimately aware of what they are doing and how it will affect the end product.

No other country in the world, besides England perhaps, still uses this old method of allowing the fabric to settle naturally and we do so because we know through experience that it is the best method. Experience has shown us that robotics do not do as good a job as natural thistles in removing the excess hair from the fibre. The thistles we use in this part of the process are a part of the natural flowers which bloom in the mountains around Trivero. Again, it is the attention to all the small details which makes the difference between producing good quality and exceptional quality products.

VIVE: Zegna is renowned for using only the very best raw material. Where does the best cashmere come from in your opinion?

ZEGNA: The best comes from Inner Mongolia, from the Chinese part of Mongolia. In fact in 1985 we started awarding a trophy to the Chinese community producing the best quality cashmere in an effort to encourage the continued excellence of the fibre. The people are very proud of their goats and the wool they produce and our trophy symbolises the importance of their product.

VIVE: Those early trips into Mongolia to purchase the wool must have been experiences not easily forgotten.

ZEGNA: That first trip was a nightmare because after arriving in Mongolia by plane they had to travel in a jeep for seven hours to get to this place in the middle of nowhere. When they arrived there were no buildings at all, only tents because the population is nomadic. A party had been arranged and they had to drink a terrible liqueur because this was the people's way of welcoming them and therefore could not be refused. They drank the liqueur and ate some very strange dishes of goat and ram's meat so that they would not offend their hosts. but once the meal was over the entire group went back to their tents and under cover of darkness, tried to revive their taste buds with mouthfuls of the provolone cheese they had brought with them from Italy. The video of their meals with these people shows the group desperately trying not to pull horrible faces as they eat the food offered them. It is very funny. As a gift for the nomads our group brought 1000 bicycles because the Chinese in these regions use either a horse, a bicycle or a motorbike for transportation. The year before they had been given a Land Rover, but the people couldn't find the spare parts, so once it broke down it was useless to them. Bicycles were much more practical.

VIVE: What is the most expensive fibre in the world today?

ZEGNA: The most expensive is the hair of the vicuna, a South American animal similar to a Llama. The animal is protected and you cannot take the hair from the animal unless you kill it and so it is only available on the black market. Of course we don't use it at all. Therefore, cashmere is the most expensive fibre we use. Because of the thinness of the fibre, it feels similar to silk. Iranian cashmere and Inner Mongolian cashmere are very different in their texture, so different that even someone unfamiliar with the fibres could pick the differences.

In the '40s my grandfather tried to breed imported cashmere goats in Italy, in the mountains surrounding Trivero. These goats must endure very cold weather with little to eat and a hard natural environment if they are to produce high quality cashmere and Italy did not provide this environment. The goats my grandfather brought over to Italy were not accustomed to the mild climate and the grass was so lush and green and inviting that the goats preferred to get fat rather than produce the wool. It was a disaster for my grandfather, but the goats enjoyed the change, I'm sure. It appears even the goats like Italian food!

Interestingly, today we provide the cashmere for the stunningly beautiful F40 Ferrari. This venture too, like my grandfather's with the goats, had its challenges because we had to study the car's seats in order to design the most appropriate covers. The cloth had to be such that it would absorb humidity and resist continual use. It was important to meet the challenge and I am pleased to say we were able to, although there was a lot of hard work in the process.

What also might not be widely known is that we make the cloth for the Pope's robes. In fact we actually have a special cloth called Gaberdina Vaticana which comes from the Vatican and was made in the '60s on request from the Pope. Initially it was just for the Pope himself, but because the fabric was so nice the tailors asked us to dye it in colours other than off-white so that it could be used in other productions. We did this of course, but kept the name Gaberdina Vaticana because it is so unique.

VIVE: Do you find that you re influenced by the history surrounding the company or more so by particular people?

ZEGNA: In many respects my father is still the greatest influence because even though he is more than 60-years-old now he has abundant energy and drive. He is intimately involved in everything we do and is constantly coming up with new ideas for the product line or the advertising and so on. He is like a volcano, a very creative man who is always open to new ideas. You will never find him just sitting back and doing nothing at all. He has experience behind him and you cannot buy that, so I respect what he has to offer.

VIVE: Some people have the impression that Italy has many commercial problems to overcome. How do you see Italy from a business and personal point of view?

ZEGNA: In terms of the private sector Italy is very good because the people re creative. There is a lot of creative genius in Italy. People are constantly looking for different ways of doing things or are working on ways of improving what already exists. This alone makes Italy an extraordinary country.

Unfortunately there is the fact that as a country it is not as effectively organised as it might be because the government is so unstable and people tend to make their own rules. The social system is so messed up that everyone tries to get what they can for themselves rather than for the country as a whole. Politically it is not an easy country because sometimes instead of helping the people to do better in their own jobs, the public system makes things very difficult for everyone. In light of this I don't think Italy is preparing itself to be one of the industrial giants of the world. When I was in France recently I was impressed by what the French were doing to bring Paris into line with the future: building roads and upgrading the city. It's all part of a concern for the future. When you come to Milan, a city of such obvious importance in the industrial sense, you notice that there is no proper airport, the roads are largely ineffective and this is not the way to plan for the future.

However, the very chaos that surrounds people here every day obliges them to strive to make the most of every opportunity. Because there is so little direction provided by the government and much of what happens is disorganised, people have become creative in their approach to sorting out their problems. This spontaneous creativity has developed beyond coping with the everyday and is reflected in all areas of endeavour, whether it be private or public. In this way Italian businesses have the advantage of responding to situations in novel and exciting ways, and this can only be good because it increases the chances for fresh ideas and concepts. This is one reason why Italy is still a major industrial power today despite all the problems. There is a spirit in the people themselves which even the first-time visitor to Italy can feel, a vitality and zest for life and living that is infectious.

VIVE: Considering all of this and the fact that the company continues to grow internationally, where do you see yourself in the Zegna company in the future, and what of the next generation?

ZEGNA: As our company continues to grow we will become more and more involved with managers within the company who will run the company with us. It will not just be a matter of successive generations running the business as in the past, but will be more in line with a management team approach. This is particularly necessary with our continued expansion internationally. Our largest international markets at the moment are Japan, America and Australia, but we are currently expanding everywhere, America particularly. It will be impossible for a small band of family members to oversee every detail, so managers are a sensible extension to the business. Of course the family itself will still own the business as always.

As far as my link with my brother and my cousin is concerned, I don't think you can have three people all at the same level within a company. Someone will have to make the final decisions. I am happy to work with the company and be there for the future, but I think that my brother and my cousin are going to be the two major decision makers. Personally I hope to be doing more of what I'm doing now and get a little more involved in the product side. Our generation will be more and more involved in the retail side of the business.

My grandfather started with the fabrics, my father and uncle developed all the areas related to the product in terms of what was demanded by consumers, from coats to suits, and our generation's concern will be to increase the retail side of the business. This is the most likely future direction for Zegna as far as I envisage it. As times change so too must our response to the demands, both in terms of the market and in terms of the business structure itself.