Italy opens the men’s fashion season with Pitti Uomo, Milan Fashion Week

The Fall/Winter 2024-25 season begins on Tuesday, January 9 with a men’s fashion week in Italy. The first stop is Florence for Pitti Uomo, the world’s largest men’s fashion fair, whose theme this year, “time,” is reflected in the motto “Pitti Time.” The event will feature a host of prestigious special guests and will end on January 12. It will be immediately followed by Milan Fashion Week, which will end on January 16 and will feature 22 shows, with, among others, returns from Fendi, Gucci and Philipp Plein and a debut show from Stone Island.

Almost 832 exhibitors have registered for the 105th edition of Pitti Uomo, 46% of them from outside Italy, compared to 825 last June and 789 in January 2023. The focus is on the international design, as demonstrated Neudeutsch, a new section dedicated to the latest generation of German designers, the Margaret Howell exhibition focusing on the covers of Architectural Review magazine and the collaboration with the French men’s fashion association Promas, in particular with the inaugural presentations of the brands Ouest Paris and Valette Studio. Instead, the S Style section, one of Pitti Uomo’s most interesting recent initiatives, introduced in 2020 to promote new sustainable and avant-garde international labels, was suspended.

Among the must-see events at Pitti Uomo 105 is the show by American designer Todd Snyder, who will open the party with his return to the catwalk. Snyder, who founded his eponymous brand in New York in 2011, where he has been showing until four years ago, will unveil for the occasion the Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder collection, a new premium Heritage line from Woolrich, the American brand whose Snyder style now is supervising. The collection will also be presented in Milan.

Next Wednesday, Pitti Uomo will welcome Luca Magliano, who returns to perform in Florence exactly six years after debuting there with his Magliano label, whose very personal style is influenced by different subcultures. On Thursday, January 11, Finnish designer Achilles Ion Gabriel, creative director of Camper, will present a show in which he will present the first collection of his new brand of the same name. The day will end with a show by Steven Stokey Daley, the Liverpool designer who won the LVMH Prize in 2022. Specializing in sophisticated and inventive menswear, Stokey Daley renews the codes of traditional British elegance with his brand SS Daley, launched in 2020.

Milan Men’s Fashion Week will take over from Pitti Uomo and open on January 12 with Gucci. The Italian luxury brand returns to the men’s calendar with the first collection designed by Sabato De Sarno. On the same day, another first, the show of Stone Island, the avant-garde high-tech outerwear brand bought by the Moncler group in 2021, an event that promises to be dazzling. Also returning to the Milan calendar are, among others, Philipp Plein, whose men’s clothing was often displayed alongside women’s; Fendi, back in Milan after presenting his men’s collection in Florence last June; and K-Way, which is shown only during the winter season.

This season, Milan will have to do without big names such as Valentino, one of the main attractions of the month of June, which has chosen to return to Paris, and Etro, which has decided to focus on a new bespoke men’s tailoring project, presented this week. , while its regular menswear will be shown alongside womenswear in February. 1017 Alyx 9SM, the brand by American designer Matthew M. Williams bought by Hong Kong billionaire Adrian Cheng, also leaves Milan, where it has been on display since January 2022.

Three other labels have also left the Milanese calendar: 44 Label Group, founded by Berlin DJ and producer Max Kobosil under the auspices of businessman Claudio Antonioli; Loverboy, the brand of Scottish designer Charles Jeffrey, which is leaving Milan Fashion Week after three seasons; and Magliano, this year’s guest of honor at Pitti Uomo.

Like last season, Milan Men’s Fashion Week will feature a reduced program with 22 shows, including a Giorgio Armani double. The event will run over two full days and two half days, with the addition of five digital programs broadcast during the final morning, Tuesday, January 16. In total, there are 74 events on the calendar, up from 72 in June. including shows by top Italian names such as Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Zegna, plus a host of presentations and special events.

On Sunday, January 14, Pronounce will debut, an Italian-Chinese men’s fashion brand launched in 2016 by Yushan Li and Jun Zhou, which until now has been present in London. The performance program includes the debuts of Domenico Orefice, Institution by Galib Gassanoff, LaTorre, Mordecai, Noskra, Rubeus Milano, Stuart Weitzman, ViaPiave33 and Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder, as well as the return of Philippe Model Paris, under the direction of a new creative director. Tuomas Merikoski.