THE RAKE’s fashion editor Esther Quek and I recently had the pleasure of attending Ermenegildo Zegna’s celebrations in Beijing marking 20 years of the company doing business in China. As those of you with a basic grasp of math will realise, Zegna first set up shop (literally) in the Middle Kingdom in 1991, back when most luxury brands thought purely of China as something you put out at tea time – certainly not as the future of their business… which is very likely how most European luxury labels would describe China today. Having established a Chinese foothold early in the game, and built a reputation as one of the most recognised, respected luxury brands in the land, Zegna now has more than 70 stores in China, and a staff of 1000-plus, the country accounting for approximately half of Zegna’s sales. It was no surprise, then, to find the Italian cloth and tailoring titan putting on quite the impressive, pull-out-all-stops event to celebrate 20 years in China, with an extensive exhibition charting Zegna’s century-long history, a tech-enhanced fashion show, and a celeb-studded after-party that stretched on into the wee small hours. Check out Zegna’s video of the event (which fortunately doesn’t feature any footage of yours truly busting Disco Dad moves on the dancefloor to the strains of Zegna resident DJ, Coleman).