Pal Zileri: Around a jacket in 180 stages

Pal Zileri's approach for autumn/winter 2017-18 is to find the right balance between the tradition of the company and the modernity of how men dress today. It's a re-imagining of the sartorial. If you say the word 'sartorial', everybody has something a little bit dusty in mind. But with this collection we explain the sartorial story and why it's still relevant to the consumer today.

There are dozens of phases in the making of a Pal Zileri jacket – 180 in total. A lot of people put a great deal of work into the garments – to look at them, nobody would guess what lies behind the tailoring, or have any idea of the chain of events behind it, or that our clothes are the handwork of so many people.

For our new collection in Milan, we transported 12 work stations (demonstrating just 12 of the 180 phases) from our factory, to give an idea of the skill it takes to make great clothing. It's difficult to represent this with a traditional fashion show, so we rethought our approach. We want people to better understand the culture and the legacy of the company.

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Of course, there is a Pal Zileri signature look that has to do with how we use these traditional skills to make modern garments. We play with fit and proportion: for example, we make fitted tailored trousers, translating tailoring into contemporary style. Whether it's a suit, a coat, an overcoat or a field jacket, we always take a tailored approach.

And the fabrics are "deep". They have a luxurious touch and we have a textile 'direction' that can be translated into different pieces for the wardrobe. We specialise in the use of subtle design motifs on our cloths, whether on a wool jacket or a cotton shirt. There is a textile progression at work here, where different materials co-exist, but clearly the same design DNA lies behind them. It's a balance between what you show and what you feel.

Most importantly, we place the consumer at the centre of what we do. The silhouette, the proportion, the styling; everything is elegant, chic and effortless to wear.

We're not producing trends; we're making clothes that are designed to last. That's why we staged a slow fashion presentation that would bring our story to life, rather than a fast fashion show. We want people to take the time to understand what's behind what we do. This is our reality.

MAURO RAVIZZA KRIEGER is the creative director of Pal Zileri, an Italian menswear company that combines traditional craftsmanship and tailoring with a modern take on design; palzileri.com