The first thing you notice about a ZUZWA coat is the sleeve
The first thing you notice about a ZUZWA coat is the sleeve. Not the shoulder, not the lapel—the sleeve. It falls in a way that suggests the pattern-cutter spent an afternoon considering how fabric behaves when an arm swings forward, then another afternoon removing everything that wasn't strictly necessary. The result is a garment that feels like architecture but moves like jersey.
ZUZWA—pronounced zoo-zwah, emphasis on the first syllable—is a Paris-based maison that has spent the last eight years proving that rigorous construction and wearability are not opposing forces. Founded in 2016 by Georgian designer Zurab Getsadze, the house operates at the intersection of Savile Row discipline and Continental ease, which is another way of saying the clothes look formal until you put them on.
Getsadze trained at Central Saint Martins, then spent three years in the pattern-cutting department at Givenchy under Riccardo Tisci. That lineage shows. ZUZWA pieces are built around a block that prioritises a high armhole and a narrow shoulder, but the silhouette is softened by unlined construction and cloths that breathe. The effect is tailoring that doesn't announce itself across a room but makes sense the moment you're wearing it.
The house showed its first collection in a rented atelier in the 10th arrondissement. Fifteen looks, all in wool or linen, all cut on the same block. No prints, no surface decoration, no attempt to be anything other than what it was: well-made separates for people who wanted to stop thinking about their clothes. The press called it minimal. Getsadze called it practical. Both were right.
What defines the house
ZUZWA's signature is restraint applied with enough confidence that it stops feeling like restraint. The colour palette runs from off-white through grey to charcoal, with occasional diversions into navy and a particular shade of olive that only works in natural light. Fabrics are sourced from mills in Biella and West Yorkshire—mostly worsteds in the 10oz to 12oz range, chosen for drape rather than weight. The house does not do linings unless the garment requires one structurally, which means most ZUZWA blazers are half-canvassed at the chest and left raw everywhere else.
The silhouette is consistent across seasons: a gently suppressed waist, a trouser with a mid-rise and a straight leg that breaks once at the shoe, a coat that skims the knee. Getsadze revises the block incrementally—a quarter-inch here, a shifted dart there—but the proportions remain legible from one year to the next. This is not a house that reinvents itself every six months.
What has changed is the range. Early collections were limited to suiting and outerwear. By 2019, ZUZWA had introduced knitwear—rollnecks in fine-gauge merino, cardigans with a shawl collar—and a small selection of shirting. The shirts are worth noting. They are cut with a soft collar and a curved hem, which allows them to be worn untucked without looking like you forgot to finish getting dressed. The cloth is a Sea Island cotton poplin, 120-thread-count, woven in Switzerland. It wrinkles immediately and beautifully, which is either a feature or a flaw depending on your tolerance for texture.
The pieces to know
If you are new to ZUZWA, start with the Atelier Blazer. It is the house's most refined expression of what a jacket can be when you strip away everything that exists to impress other people. Single-breasted, two-button, notch lapel. Patch pockets. No lining except a strip of silk at the shoulders to ease movement. The cloth is an 11oz hopsack from Huddersfield, which gives the jacket enough body to hold its shape but not so much that it feels stiff. It is cut to sit close through the chest and then release at the waist, which means it works over knitwear without looking bulky.
The Atelier Blazer retails for €950. That is not inexpensive, but it is fair for half-canvas construction and cloth of this quality. ZUZWA does not discount. The house produces in small runs—most styles are made in quantities of fifty to eighty units per season—and sells through its own boutique in the Marais and a handful of stockists in London, New York, and Tokyo. If a piece sells out, it sells out.
The other essential is the Overcoat, a single-breasted design in a 13oz wool-cashmere blend that falls just below the knee. It has a notched lapel, set-in sleeves, and four buttons, though most people leave the bottom two undone. The coat is unlined, which makes it light enough to wear from September through April without overheating. It also means you can see the seam allowances on the inside, which some buyers find off-putting and others find reassuring. ZUZWA's position is that hiding the construction suggests you have something to hide.
The trousers—offered in three cuts: slim, straight, and wide—are made from the same worsteds as the blazers and priced at €420. They have a flat front, side adjusters instead of belt loops, and a hem that is left unfinished so you can have them altered to break where you prefer. The wide cut, introduced in 2021, has a 32cm leg opening and a pleated front. It is the closest ZUZWA has come to acknowledging trends, though Getsadze insists the silhouette is borrowed from 1950s Neapolitan tailoring rather than contemporary runways.
Knitwear starts at €280 for a rollneck and tops out at €650 for a heavyweight shawl-collar cardigan in a wool-yak blend. The knits are made in Scotland by a family-run mill that also supplies Margaret Howell and Sunspel. They are dense without being heavy, and they hold their shape after washing, which is rare for natural fibres at this price point.
Where the house is now
ZUZWA has not scaled in the way some of its peers have. There is still one boutique, still one designer, still a team of six people working out of a studio near Canal Saint-Martin. Getsadze has turned down offers from larger retailers who wanted to stock the full collection, preferring instead to work with independents who understand the house's pacing. ZUZWA does not do pre-orders. It does not do collaborations. It shows twice a year, on schedule, and ships when the collection is ready.
This has kept the house small, but it has also kept it solvent. ZUZWA operates without outside investment, which means Getsadze answers to no one except his customers and his pattern-cutter, who has been with him since 2017. The two of them spend the week before each season adjusting blocks on a dress form in the studio, moving seams by millimetres until the garment does what they want it to do.
The Spring 2025 collection, shown in January, introduced a blouson in washed linen and a double-breasted blazer with a peak lapel—the first time ZUZWA has used a peak lapel on anything. Getsadze described the jacket as an experiment. It may or may not return for Autumn. That is how the house works. You try something, you see if it fits, you move on.
Before you buy
ZUZWA sizing runs true to European standards, which means a 48 fits like a 38 in the UK or US. The house recommends sizing up if you plan to layer knitwear under a blazer, though the unlined construction allows for more ease than a traditional jacket. Most pieces are offered in sizes 44 to 54, with some styles extending to 56.
Fabric care is straightforward. Wool can be dry-cleaned or steamed. Linen should be washed cold and hung to dry. Knitwear can be hand-washed in cool water with a wool detergent, though the house recommends dry-cleaning for the yak-blend pieces. ZUZWA includes care instructions with every garment, printed on a card that also lists the fabric composition and country of manufacture.
Returns are accepted within fourteen days, unworn and in original condition. Alterations void the return policy, so if you are unsure about fit, visit the boutique or contact one of the stockists who can arrange a try-on. ZUZWA does not do made-to-measure, but Getsadze has been known to adjust sleeve length or trouser hems for clients who ask politely.
The house ships worldwide. Duties and VAT are charged at checkout for most destinations, which means no surprise fees when the package arrives. Delivery takes five to seven business days within Europe, ten to fourteen for the US and Asia.
There is a waiting list for certain pieces—the Overcoat, usually, and sometimes the wide-cut trousers—but it moves quickly. ZUZWA restocks core styles twice per season, though fabric availability can shift the schedule. If you want something specific, it is worth emailing the boutique directly. They respond within a day, sometimes within an hour.
The studio smells like wool and steam. Getsadze keeps a wooden pressing board near the cutting table, the kind you find in old Neapolitan tailoring houses, and uses it to shape lapels by hand before they are sewn. It is a slow process, and an expensive one, and it produces a roll that cannot be replicated by machine. You can see it in the finished garment if you know where to look. Most people don't. But it is there.
