Stefano Pilati

Stefano Pilati is an Italian fashion designer whose career includes senior roles at Miu Miu, Prada, Giorgio Armani and Yves Saint Laurent, where he served as creative director from 2004 to 2012. Ermenegildo Zegna announced him as Head of Design in September 2012, effective January 2013, with responsibility for the mainline menswear and the elevated Couture proposition but not Z Zegna.

Pilati simultaneously became Creative Director of Agnona, where he introduced the ZERO project and a less seasonal retail experiment. He left Agnona in July 2015 and presented his final Zegna collection in January 2016; the Group confirmed his departure the following month.

He founded Random Identities in 2017, later presenting at Pitti Uomo, and has undertaken finite guest projects including Friends of Fendi and Stefano Pilati x Zara. These later collaborations are separate from his closed Zegna appointments.

Pilati approaches tailoring through instability and sensuality. Jackets are softened or broken apart, trousers lengthen and pool, and conventional menswear materials are set against ornament, transparency or domestic ease. At Zegna, the method relied on the mill’s fabric range while refusing a single corporate uniform.

His image systems extend beyond clothes. Architectural sets, film, photography and retail timing were used to alter how a collection was encountered, from the city-and-nature staging of Zegna to Agnona ZERO’s prototypes and immediate purchase.

Across Yves Saint Laurent, Zegna, Agnona and Random Identities, his work repeatedly tests the boundary between elegance and awkwardness, formal codes and subcultural dress, institutional polish and personal idiosyncrasy.