As a family business, Ermenegildo Zegna goes back to the second half of the 19th century. Angelo Zegna a watchmaker by trade, started weaving wool from four looms. Of his ten children it was the last, Ermenegildo born in 1892, who took over what was to become one of Italy’s best known and most dynamic family businesses.

It was the young entrepreneur; Ermenegildo aged 18 that founded the Lanificio Zegna (wool mill) in 1910, in Trivero, in the Alpine foothills near Biella. Ermenegildo began to produce fabrics using four looms. In his own words, these fabrics had to be “the most beautiful in the world.” Today, Zegna fabrics are still one of Italy’s most acclaimed exports, identified internationally by a red seal.