When Stefano Pilati pitched his tent at Agnona, he was deliberately a shadow figure. He wanted a clear division between his creative duties there and at its menswear counterpart, Zegna. There would be no shows for Agnona, no designer appearances. He would be a presence unseen. But, oh, how he was felt. The Pilati signature was that distinctive. Now, a couple of years have passed, Agnona debuts its smart new space in Milan, and lo! Pilati is on hand to greet visitors, walk them through the new collection, and talk with refreshing honesty about ironing out the wrinkles.
"At first I was a bit frustrated with not showing," Pilati admitted. "But now I'm enjoying that I've taken the time. I was able to develop a business structure, and because I wasn't reacting mechanically to deadlines, I've also had the luxury of developing the brand." And that has brought Pilati to a point where he is happy to acknowledge the symbiosis between Zegna and Agnona. "There's a self-assurance that comes from menswear," he said. So there were not just fabrics carried over from Zegna's menswear—the sensational Century cashmere, cut here into dresses, tunics, coats over trousers—but also an attitude, "a fantasy about identity," Pilati called it. "I work on cut and silhouette most of the time, so the details are symbolic," he added cryptically. If that meant a zipper pull exotically shaped like an elongated crescent moon, then so be it. But there were also a cabled sweaterdress with a thick fringe and an equally heavily fringed poncho that spoke to something much gutsier. The culotte jumpsuit, a particular favorite of Pilati's, had a Cossack back. And the coats—always a high point in a Pilati collection—were fluidly caped.
Drama attaches itself to Pilati. That is undoubtedly hard for him as an individual, but as a designer it's the kind of asset that subtly elevated the collection he showed for Agnona. And now that he has built an overt bridge to his sterling work at Zegna, things can only get better.
