INVEST

by nick scott

The Ermenegildo Zegna Toyz collection backpack

Here’s one for trivia buffs: it’s distinctly possible that the backpack was invented before the wheel. At least, we know for certain that Ötzi the Iceman — whose remains were found by snow hikers in 1991 — set off across the southern Austrian Alps carrying a primitive, wooden-framed device around 5,300 years ago, while the first wheels used on chariots date to about 3200 BC.

So backpacks have had a good deal of time to improve, and their evolution reaches a pinnacle with this lightweight and stylish item, a key piece in Ermenegildo Zegna’s Toyz, a collection of accessories, entertainment pieces and home products crafted using the brand’s signature . This is an innovative, supple yet durable fabric made from extremely thin strands of nappa leather in place of fabric yarns (the phrase translates from Italian as ‘woven leather’). The result of several years of lab research at Ermenegildo Zegna’s technical quarters, the technique offers cake-and-eat-it results: the softness of fabric but