This Italian fashion house has taken inspiration from English gardens for its latest collection

Material excellence is the calling card of Agnona. Francesco Ilorini Mo established the business in 1953, originally as a highly specialised fabric mill. A true aficionado, Ilorini Mo travelled the globe in pursuit of rare fibres, returning to the Sesia Valley, in Italy’s Piedmont region, laden with cashmere and alpaca from Mongolia and Peru. There, he and his team created fabrics used in the Paris ateliers of couturiers including Cristóbal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Over the decades, the concept of an Agnona collection of ready-to-wear womenswear evolved, with designs shaped by the brand’s expertise in yarns and cloths.

‘Agnona is first and foremost a house of material intelligence. Everything begins with the fibre – with its hand, its weight, its warmth, its behaviour – and from there the garment takes shape,’ says Stefano Aimone, a designer – and great-grandson of Ermenegildo Zegna – who has been the CEO and creative director of Agnona since 2021. ‘But Agnona is also about a certain attitude towards life,’ he adds. ‘It is quiet, cultivated and deeply rooted in the idea that beautiful things should be made with patience and care. We are not interested in producing more for the sake of more. We believe in making things that have a reason to exist, that can accompany someone for a very long time. At its core, Agnona is about creating a sense of continuity – pieces, ideas and experiences that become more meaningful with time and that can be carried forward from one generation to the next.’

For this season’s collection, Aimone looked beyond northern Italy for creative stimulus. His starting point: an English garden in the hours just before dawn. ‘I was interested in that very particular moment when everything is quiet and the landscape feels almost suspended – the coldness of the air, the softness of the light, the textures of the vegetation, and the contrast between fragility and protection,’ he says. Then, he focused on sensations. What does wet earth, leaves and bark feel like to the touch? How do you translate the ‘feeling of wrapping oneself in something warm against the cold’? Cue double cashmere fabrications and enveloping silhouettes that shield against the outside. The collection is a blend of artisanal traditions and technical advancements. Aimone worked with RainWeaver cashmere, an Agnona speciality made of pure cashmere treated with a water-repellent finish. ‘The silhouette comes from this dialogue between softness and protection; nature and technology,’ he adds.

Earlier this year, the first Italian flagship store of Aimone’s Agnona opened in Milan, rooms fitted with Botticino marble terrazzo tiles, natural walnut boiserie and simple brick. The latter is a detail chosen in tribute to Piedmont farmhouses. In London, Aimone’s work can be found at Harrods; opened in 2024, a dedicated Agnona space on the department store’s first floor can easily be spotted from afar, fitted as it is with monochrome tiles made from marble pebbles. Another address of note is the company archives, a treasure trove of rarely seen creations, swatches and ephemera. It’s an important space to Aimone, and one that he describes as ever-evolving. ‘The archive is not simply a record of what Agnona has done; it is part of what Agnona is doing now,’ he explains. ‘A fabric developed today can become tomorrow’s archive, and something we discover in the past can become the starting point for something completely contemporary.’ As is the Agnona way.