MANIFESTO

#63

CHANGE OF SPACE

BORN IN OASI ZEGNA

2024.04.24

Text by Francesca Fontanesi

Born in Oasi Zegna, ZEGNA’s new collectible volume, is a written and visual narrative that aims to bring the ethos of the maison everywhere. Just like the Oasis born among the Biellese Alps, the book itself is conceived as a true living organism.

Born in Oasi Zegna is a timeless document, a playbook, a visual narrative that sprouts from the original seed of ZEGNA and aims to bring that seed into the world to make it sprout again and again. Following the cycle of seasons, thus a circular and almost timeless time, or above it, it teems with images, illustrations, words, historical fragments, fused into an infinite loop that can be accessed from every page. Born in Oasi Zegna makes palpable the ethics underlying everything that happens in the brand’s world. It is an ethics that holds together people and the environment, values and well-being, in a vertically integrated system of actions: a mindset.

The Zegna Oasis is a nature reserve spanning 100 km² in the setting of the Biellese Alps, in Piedmont. At the beginning of the last century, Ermenegildo Zegna embarked on an extensive reforestation program in the mountainous area around his Wool Mill and for the first time connected the two sides of the mountain by building road 232. The reforestation project and the development of the local community that gave birth to the Zegna Oasis today counts over 500,000 trees and promotes cohesion and harmony between man, business, and nature. The founder’s vision has been nurtured by successive generations, who continue to preserve the Zegna Oasis as a unique model of social and environmental awareness. The Zegna Oasis is the home of Zegna’s values. The center of everything, the reason for its existence, and the germ of future developments. It is the testimony of a real and engaging authenticity. The Zegna Oasis now travels, not only as a mindset. Milan is the first stop on its new journey: The new flowerbeds of Piazza Duomo will be officially donated to the city of Milan on April 19, marking the beginning of the project aimed at creating new Zegna Oases around the world. The aim is to convey the value and urgency of respect for the earth and nature, as well as the importance of urban green spaces in bringing people closer to natural ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity and social responsibility, fundamental concepts in the Zegna Oasis. Enclosed in a book that distills emotion in its purest form to speak to everyone through the senses, Born in Oasi Zegna embodies the spirit of ZEGNA in an unexpected form.

For further information zegna.com.

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