Pitti L’Uomo is upon us: Today, the ancient doors of Florence’s Fortezze del Basso will open for the 104th edition of menswear’s greatest gathering. For the uninitiated, navigating the hundreds of stands at this four-day festival of masculine finery can seem like an endless round of spritz and fits, all very pleasant but ultimately a little aimless.
It need not be so. As a grizzled veteran of the event, I’ve learned that doing Pitti well demands the same strategy as being well-dressed: It pays to plan ahead and know what you want. Along with touching the cloth, Florence is about shooting the breeze. In editions past I’d be champing at the snaffle-bit to check on stands including The Gigi, Massimo Alba, Camoshita, Innis Meain, and Piombo, as much for the inspirational parley with the founder creatives as the innovative style they showed. Now, though, this hallowed lot has long deserted the Fortezza walls to allow a new Pitti committee to emerge. Vogue Runway has asked me to share my rough guide to the names to know at this year’s edition, and I’m more than happy to oblige.
First up is Nigel Cabourn, one font of flair who still subscribes to Florence syndrome. Cabourn’s energy source is currently fired by a collaboration with the heritage U.S. wilderness brand Holubar (whose authenticity is enshrined by Robert De Niro’s character wearing it in The Deer Hunter). Cabourn has cred and credentials: He was pioneering oversized denim before it got big, and began reinterpreting vintage military when it was still a fresh idea. His garments are achingly well produced using highest-grade components. Recent lead statements for Holubar are crafted in one-off hand tie-dyed ‘camouflage’ Japanese rip-stop fabric in irregular patterns and hues including muted cobalt and orange.
This Pitti will premier Cabourn’s new work with Brit-brand Sunspel. Anticipated highlights include its archetypal boxer short reworked as an outer short. Sunspel will also unleash a new collaboration with artist Katie Scott featuring her gorgeous repeating hand-drawn plant prints. If this “creative incubator” gambit is how heritage names such as Sunspel and Holubar opt to liven things up at Pitti then I am right behind it.
The last time John Smedley launched a new Sea Island cotton round neck top, the Lorca in 2018, it made an impact on some of the most stylish men in film and television. I concede that many of these men are also my clients, but reiterate the importance of neck execution and a matte hand to flatter one’s complexion. So many powerfully effective menswear statements are about such subtleties. “Our Derbyshire mill remains the oldest still operational manufacturer in the world, dating to 1784,” John Smedley managing Director Ian Maclean told me last season. Some quietly distinctive round neck knits got me excited in January: I’m very into sweatshirts or Shetlands under tailoring or leathers of late. Other effective and simmering neckline treatments include their Merino wool Gonson ‘all needle’ construction, in which both sides have a fine matte pique texture. Smedley’s ‘Upson’ cashmere/Merino is like a ribbed Shetland but with superb raglan shoulder ribbing detailing. Get into it.
One highly anticipated Pitti L’Uomo debut will be from revered bespoke tailor Liverano and Liverano. We should be expecting thickly ladled portions of old world cuts - no skinny tailoring here - and fabric appreciation. Also significant is the second season of Pitti’s “Italy X Japan” project, curated by Hirofumi Kurino, which sees Aldo Maria Camillo deliver a new collection produced in collaboration with two Japanese manufacturers. It’s chalked up in my diary as a must-see.
The curious acronym KTN stands for Kiton New Textures. Launched in 2018, it is the Neapolitan tailoring marque Kiton’s younger, ostensibly cooler offshoot. Designed by twins Walter and Mariano, it’s also watched over by their steely-eyed father and newly appointed Pitti President, Antonio Matteis. The twins are delivering effectively youthful nu-sart. Fuchsia sweats and canary silk play-suits aside, they’ve accomplished high-level contemporary tailoring. That a low slung, long cut double-breasted jacket drapes so beautifully, more cardigan than blazer, is thanks to the fact that its exclusive jersey wools are woven on a ‘circolara’ weaving machine in Napoli using a method normally reserved for socks. Shard-like peak lapels and adept under collar hand-finishes demonstrate how they’ve harnessed the tailoring skills of the 400 artisans in their Napoli factory.
At a recent London meeting, Pitti’s CEO Raffaello Napoleone disclosed that smart shirts and ties were the number one and two growth product categories within the €9 billion in sales taken at Pitti last season. Third, he said, was “formal,” again, in stark contradiction to the streetwear hegemony that reigns elsewhere. For me, Pitti’s one leading light in this sartorial resistance is Brunello Cucinelli. Easy always does it with doge of sprezzatura (translation: stylistic affected nonchalance). This is because while Cucinelli’s gear is unashamedly luxurious, some of it is conspicuously so. Yet he presents it all with a can-do accessibility his devotees thrive on. This sophisticated recipe is delivered via contradictory combos of sporty suede gilets, leather overshirts, or enveloping cashmere cardigans over his relaxed brand of formality (suits, shirts and ties, No.s 1-2-3!).
While showing new editions of English shoemaker Crocket Jones’s elevated Hand Grade line, managing director Jonathan Jones tends to caress and test ‘the break’ of his footwear with his fingertips. The break is what creases first: these fine hairlines are the chief for-those-who-know signifier of quality shoes (and the antithesis of heinous irregular rougher cracking of ‘corrected’ leather, he will explain). This brand is all about nuanced codes. While Crocket Jones remains fervently a Goodyear welted brand, it will be with modest resolve that it presents its first-ever boat shoe this week at Pitti. The Falmouth is a jazzy trainer hybrid, and I admire its air of a handsome comfort shoe in fine calf teamed with a new Vibram boat sole. Such cultivated boating style might even work with a Cucinelli or KTN suit. And that’s it: my personal hit list of the best bits of Pitti. The real-world’s longest running style fair isn’t going to change the fashion world, but it might well change your wardrobe.
Listen to Vogue Runway’s José Criales-Unzueta and Laia Garcia-Furtado talk more about Pitti L’Uomo on this episode of The Run-Through here.