Pitti Uomo 106: what we learnt from the Florence menswear fair

The French designer Marine Serre, one of the guest designers of this season’s Florence menswear fair, Pitti Uomo 106, selected the 15th-century Villa di Maiano – located in the rolling hills just outside of the city – to present her S/S 2025 collection, which featured her most comprehensive menswear offering yet. Presented in the gilded light of the early evening, it was easy to see why designers like Serre have long chosen to show at Pitti Uomo, despite the relative upheaval of transporting a collection across borders. Here was a setting just about as cinematic as it gets, seeing models weave their way through the Edenic gardens towards the hedge mazes below, all the while the spires and domes of Florence providing a distant backdrop in the fading evening light. Afterwards, guests mingled on the lawns for aperitivo, with more than one noting their desire to uproot themselves to the Tuscan countryside.

Pitti Uomo 106: the highlights

Serre said that the collection was inspired by the glamour of Italian cinema, most astutely captured in the womenswear collection, a dramatic stream of confection-like gowns which came complete with the Italian tropes of headscarves, lace and veils. They marked a move onwards from the slick, crescent-moon second-skin pieces for which Serre has become known, and will likely please her celebrity fanbase. Other gowns, constructed from collaged hiking and tennis bags, recalled her earlier work with pieced-together, upcycled garments. It was clear that the setting had proved creatively inspirational for Serre, who seemed to find new freedoms away from Paris. A final white dress, emblazoned with the flags of Congo, Palestine, and Sudan, recalled her early slogan ‘A Radical Call for Love’. ‘The collection symbolises a call for peace,’ she said, noting that her models hailed from 25 different countries around the world.

At another villa earlier in the week – the 19th-century Villa Favard, created by Giuseppe Poggi – Paul Smith, the season’s other guest designer, revelled not in the grand or cinematic, but instead in the intimacy that Pitti Uomo affords (unlike Milan and Paris, a scant schedule of shows means more time for absorbing a designer’s collection). In one of the villa’s gilded salons, guests sat on stools as Smith talked through his latest collection’s various looks. ‘I think the world’s gone a bit mad with these shows everywhere around the world,’ he said, presiding over a room of gathered guests and press. ’I just think it’s so lacking in personality. So I thought, why don’t I just talk to everyone and show the collection?’ It was an astute way of showing the Paul Smith S/S 2025 offering, inspired by Soho’s Italian coffee bars and their artistic patrons, placing the ever-charismatic Smith front and centre.

Earlier that evening, fellow British designer Margaret Howell hosted an equally intimate drinks reception at her Florence store, marking ten years of the unique location, which is just steps from the River Arno. An accompanying photographic exhibition saw classic Margaret Howell pieces blown up on posters around the store, each chosen for its links to Italian manufacturing, which Howell said she wanted to highlight (Italy accounts for nearly half of the raw materials the brand uses, and 32 per cent of clothing and accessories production). ‘I have always chosen to work with specialist manufacturers and weavers [and] Italy has an innate understanding of make and quality that is unique to our industry,’ she said. ‘Opening a production office and shop in Florence has enabled us to build stronger relationships and to showcase their craft.’ In a show of support between two stalwarts of British fashion, Howell joined Smith’s apertivo hour at the specially constructed ‘Bar Paul’ at Villa Favard, just a short walk away.

At the historic Fortezza da Basso, where the main menswear fair takes place each season, Herno provided a showcase of its own distinct brand of Italian craft (founded in Piedmont, northern Italy, it began with the construction of coated cotton raincoats and has been an expert in fabric construction since). Transforming its longstanding pavilion at the fair into a stripped-back space divided by enormous video screens, the brand’s showcase of its collection illustrated the latest step in its evolution from outerwear expert to a comprehensive fashion label that caters to the various needs of a man’s wardrobe. Which is why, despite it being a S/S 2025 collection, the pieces came in a variety of weights – from high-summer seersucker sets, tennis wear and swimming shorts (a new addition to the brand’s roster) to warmer down pieces and an array of knitwear – which Herno said was purposely ‘transseasonal’, an astute pitch for the international, country-hopping consumer.

An equally comprehensive offering came from Missoni, which made its debut this season at the menswear fair, having previously shown at the brand’s Brera HQ in Milan during the city’s fashion week. Presented in the cool, salon-like interiors of the Construzione Lorenesei – a more sedate enclave than the busy, modern main pavilion – it was described as a collection which ‘moves across occasions and situations’. An array of slouchy knit cardigans, some adorned with the classic zig-zag Missoni motif, were at the collection’s centre, equally imaginable worn with the collection’s colourful swim shorts and sandals on a summer’s evening or as an enveloping wintertime layer. A demonstration of craft came in the cobalt-blue crystal coatings on garments, recalling the shimmer of ocean waters, while intricate knit jackets – some panelled with narrow lines of leather – were constructed on traditional artisanal looms.

At Brunello Cucinelli, there was a satisfying injection of colour this season, notably in vibrant shades of peach which added new interest to the designer’s classic silhouettes. This feeling of lightness ran through the collection, which featured roomy, technical jackets (Cucinelli said the silhouette was inspired by 1980s cuts), airy knit polos and pleated white pants, alongside capsule collections inspired by tennis and golf. Tailoring, meanwhile, was cut with a narrower line, while accessories spanned Western-inspired belts, leather-trimmed espadrilles and woven-knit ties. The collection was celebrated with a dinner at Serre Torrigiani on Pitti Uomo’s opening night, seeing guests – including the actor Jeff Goldblum and his wife Emilie Livingston – spill out onto the restaurant’s terraced Italian gardens, first constructed in the 16th century and here lined with candlelit dining tables. Deemed Florence’s secret ‘oasis’, it was yet another of the uniquely cinematic settings that continue to give Pitti Uomo its distinct allure.

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