The Italian menswear tailoring house reveals a new campaign starring Sam Riley 

We’ve got our eyes glued to Ermenegildo Zegna Couture’s Autumn/Winter 2014 campaign, and it may very well be due to the fact that Disney’s Maleficent star Sam Riley has been chosen to suit up as the protagonist of the storied Italian menswear house’s newly released minimalistic yet powerful images.

Photographed by Dutch duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matain, and directed by Stefano Pilati, the campaign follows the same four consecutive image layout as the Spring 2014 campaign, which featured 50 Shades of Grey frontman Jamie Dornin. The theme of ‘émines grises’, the man in grey, which was first introduced last season as the symbol of the Zegna man of excellence, is multiplied and reinforced with the elegance and charisma that Riley naturally embodies.

The campaign’s headlining image captures the actor standing alone against a white background, and communicates the essence of Zegna’s new leader–“a man with charisma, not necessarily connected with the culture of business, but that influences decisions and leads projects to completion”– through the actor’s captivating glare and elegant sportiness. Another shot in the set features a minimalist room in which eight men dressed in grey represent leaders in the world of menswear.

Look out for the campaign in the coming few weeks (though we doubt you’ll have to try too hard to spot it).