The best menswear of Pitti Uomo 109, from Hed Mayner to a ‘suit walk’ through Florence

The 109th edition of Pitti Uomo, the historic menswear fair that takes over the 14th-century Fortezza da Basso in the centre of Florence twice a year, drew to a conclusion yesterday (15 January). With two rising Japanese guest designers on the bill this season, and a spotlight on a disruptive next gen of Korean fashion, it was a bumper year for East Asian talent at the fair – a theme organisers leaned into with a series of tangential talks and events, including bringing Tokyo’s Sebiro Sanpo (suit walk) to Italy for the first time, where hundreds of men walk the streets in their sharpest tailoring.

As for the shows, Shinya Kozuka staged a poetic snowstorm in a hall behind the medieval fortress, while on Thursday afternoon, 2025’s LVMH Prize winner Soshi Otsuki received a standing ovation for his masterfully crafted exploration of 1980s power suiting, making for one of the most talked-about displays of the week. But it was Israel-born Hed Mayner who took centre stage, presenting his headline runway in a 1930s palace next to Santa Maria Novella train station – a collection that twisted familiar wardrobe icons through beautifully ‘wrong’ construction.

As fashion crowds take the two-hour train north for Milan Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026, catch up on the best of Pitti Uomo here.

Tokyo’s Sebiro Sanpo (suit walk) comes to Florence

Walking around Florence throughout the week of Pitti Uomo, you’ll see hundreds of well-heeled men on every corner, with cafés a flurry of flamboyant suits and bars filled with Scandi gorpcore groups enjoying aperitivo. On the first afternoon of the trade show, however, a sight emerged outside the usual visiting hubbub – 200 menswear lovers and industry figures walking through the streets of the city in their finest tailoring.

Drawing intrigue from onlookers as they moved from Fortezza da Basso down to Santa Maria Novella square, the spectacle marked the first official Sebiro Sanpo (suit walk) in Italy – an event originating in Tokyo that invites menswear fans across Japan to gather and stroll in their favourite suit. Organised with fabric mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, which supplies materials to Zegna and Drake’s, it marked a joyful kick off this edition of Pitti, and a week where Japanese menswear culture was firmly in the spotlight.

Brunello Cucinelli’s candlelit palace dinner party

The Brunello Cucinelli dinner is a perennial highlight at Pitti Uomo. While in the summer edition the brand throws an outdoor banquet, in January, it is famed for hosting hundreds of guests in the grand ballroom of the Palazzo Corsini, a baroque palace that overlooks the Arno River. Continuing the tradition in style, over candlelit table settings on Tuesday evening, several courses of Italian fare were served with a side of theatricality – huge copper pans of tomato pasta served up table-side and cannoli filled by hand for each attendee at dessert.

The brand’s warm hospitality continued over at the fair, where it received visitors at an impressively built stand (which resembled a fully realised store, complete with carpeting and furniture) to see its A/W 2026 collection up close. This season, the brand’s sophisticated wardrobe leaned into influences that merged nostalgic military flight uniforms, academic fabrics like corduroy and Western-style embellished hardware. Another highlight of the week came on Wednesday afternoon, when the Italian designer sat down for a talk with Toby Bateman, CEO of Mr Porter, in which the influential men spoke on the shifting tides of men’s style.

Herno’s futuristic alpine ski lodge

In a gleaming silver box near the entrance of the fair, heritage Italian brand Herno hosted one of the most impressive displays at Pitti this year. Inside the dark, cavernous room, rails of the brand’s A/W 2026 men’s collection explored the idea of an ‘urban traveller moving through cities, landscapes and shifting temperatures’. A wall of candy-coloured puffer jackets formed the centrepiece – the Herno 7 Denari, crafted in technical quilted down – while the label’s codes of sophistication appeared in chic knits of pure cashmere and compact jersey, structured denim, and leather accessories. Leaning into an alpine theme this season, the back of the room took on the feel of a ski lodge – where more playful fleece and shearling pieces evoked a nostalgic holiday mood – complete with hot drinks and biscuits for fairgoers to enjoy between appointments

Shinya Kozuka’s poetic snowstorm in the Fortezza da Basso

Tokyo-based designer Shinya Kozuka (who styles his namesake brand as Shinyakozuka) has built a devoted following for his dreamy, expressive clothes – though largely within Japan. His presentation at Pitti Uomo this week marked both his debut at the fair and his first time showing outside Tokyo. Covering a hall behind Fortezza da Basso in several inches of fake snow, Kozuka staged a mid-winter scene inspired by the lost gloves he often spots abandoned on Tokyo’s sidewalks, imagining their wearers as a series of men walking through a snowy wilderness.

Leaning into the designer’s taste for storybook fantasy, the collection merged experimental tailoring and drapery in cut in a particular school of Japanese design, mixed with pragmatic shapes that recalled Americana workwear (the collection debuted a collaboration with Dickies.) Among these utilitarian pocketed looks, the designer's skill in inventing original, tactile fabrication was seen in wool punched with white thread to mimic dustings of snow and a dramatic white button appliqué coat that closed the show, jangling pleasingly as the model walked. It made a poetic Pitti debut that, for a few moments at least, transported Florence to the romance of a frosty Japanese winter.

Hed Mayner’s headline runway show

Hed Mayner was honoured with the headline guest designer slot at Pitti Uomo this season, an opportunity he used to do what he does best – carve bold, unexpected structures from the foundations of tailoring. The Israel-born, Paris-based designer first appeared on the scene in the mid-2010s with cleverly structured designs loosely inspired by the oversized tailoring of the orthodox Jewish community. He has since been awarded the LVMH prize and steadily grown his brand to global acclaim.

Unveiled on Wednesday evening, the designer chose La Palazzina Reale as the location of his A/W 2026 collection, a modern palace built in the 1930s located unusually close to the Santa Maria Novella train station. Balancing fantasy and everyday life, Mayner’s collection itself skewed tailoring archetypes with dramatic ‘gestures’ of oddness – a jacket with vastly exaggerated shoulders that suctioned in at the waist, a cinematic faux fur coat detailed with a leather strap across the back, and scarves so long they skimmed the ground. Set to a stirring soundtrack overlaid with the words of Canadian-American artist Agnes Martin, the collection was about seeking one’s own idea of beauty.

‘It’s about creating a body language, a certain gesture,’ Mayner said on the morning of the show. ‘When you wear these clothes, they put you into a certain mood, an environment. There’s something wrong about these shapes, and that wrongness is perfect for me.’

READ: Hed Mayner’s Pitti Uomo show was all about finding beauty in ‘wrongness’

Soshi Otsuki’s swooning ode to 1980s power suiting

On Thursday afternoon, guests were ushered down a pathway behind the imposing Santa Maria Novella cathedral, through a manicured courtyard and into a small, stony chapel lit only by the dying afternoon light for Soshi Otsuki’s Pitti Uomo display. As swooning 1980s jazz music began to play and the lights came up, what followed was for many editors the standout event of the week. Opening with three immaculately cut grey suits, Otsuki – who won the coveted LVMH Prize last year – used his Pitti debut to showcase his mastery in tailoring. Offsetting tradition with subtle, unexpected flourishes – from dandy-esque wide silk ties tucked into shirts, to jumpsuits that neatly fused shirting and trousers – the collection riffed on the broad lines and soft romance of the 1980s, while its razor-sharp attention to detail made each look unmistakably Otsuki’s own. Emerging in the room for a brief few seconds, the designer was met with a well-deserved standing ovation at the show’s close.

Korea’s disruptive new gen gets its own display

In its own small circular brick building in the grounds of the Fortezza where the trade fair takes place, a dedicated display of rising Korean design talent provided a respite from the busy crowds of the main fair. Following its successful debut last year, the ‘Code Korea’ exhibition introduces six designers who reflect a ‘bold dialogue between tradition and innovation, sustainability and experimentation’. Among the most interesting on view were Seokwon Yoon, a brand that disrupts the neatness of school uniforms and tailoring with punk influences, and Egnarts, a brand defined by its beautifully wonky silhouettes and use of surreal motifs.