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May 3, 2013
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Ermenegildo Zegna celebrates 50 years of wool trophies in Australia

Published
May 3, 2013

In 1963, the Italian textile company created the first “Ermenegildo Zegna Extrafine Wool Trophy” to recognize the best Australian farmers for the quality of their fine and superfine wool. The award was a joint effort with ASWGA, the Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association, whose 200 members are some of the most important and renowned sheep farmers in Australia.

The wool for Zegna’s prized fabrics is shorn from Australian sheep.


A half a century later, the mill based in Biella, Italy, and specialized in luxury men's ready-to-wear, celebrated the 50th edition of the Ermenegildo Zegna wool trophies from April 21 to 23 in Sydney with two days of festivities, in partnership with the Woolmark Company.

This anniversary included a runway show that debuted the “Ermenegildo Zegna Wool Trophy 50th Anniversary 1963-2013” capsule collection, created just for the occasion. The collection comprised a dozen looks in hounds tooth weave made with trophy-winning prestigious wools from past years that the company has carefully preserved until now.

To reward Australian sheepherders and their efforts to obtain increasingly finer wools over the years, the Zegna Group established a new trophy in 2002, the Vellus Aureum (golden fleece in Latin) that is awarded to the finest and most remarkable wool. The breeders Edward and Jill Hundy of Windradeen farm won this year’s prize for an 11.7-micron fleece, also taking home the “Extrafine Wool Trophy.”

The “Vellus Aureum” trophy was created by the American artist Kiki Smith.


Ermenegildo Zegna is one of the few companies that handles all aspects of the wool mill business, from spinning to clothes manufacturing to direct sales. The group operates 557 single brand stores in some one hundred markets and earned 1.26 billion euro in 2012, posting an increase of 12% compared to 2011.

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