The Florentine trade fair Pitti Uomo, which takes place twice a year in the Tuscan city, has long heralded the start of Men’s Fashion Month – the first stop for international press and buyers before they head onwards to the ensuing fashion weeks in Milan and Paris. Revolving around the Fortezza da Basso, a 16th-century fort turned exhibition centre where international brands gather to show their latest collections each season (this year, there were 740 exhibitors from 30 countries), there is also a vibrant guest program, with designers like Raf Simons, Giorgio Armani, Grace Wales Bonner, Martine Rose and Jonathan Anderson hosting one-off shows across the city (typically these skew towards the grand and the dramatic, from the Boboli Gardens at dusk to Florence‘s various palazzos, museums and theatres).
For its 110th edition, amid throngs of tourists and soaring temperatures (they tipped 36 degrees on a sweltering Thursday afternoon), the menswear world nonetheless turned out in force – albeit largely eschewing the usual three-piece tailored uniform that once defined the fair (the most ardent of those were known as the ‘Pitti Peacocks’, named so for their flamboyant, Crayola-hued suiting). This season, attendees largely went for comfort: oversized T-shirts, Ralph Lauren polos, and colourful shirts tied around the waist were all ubiquitous, allowing them to roam freely across what proved a relatively busy schedule, both in and out of the fair – most notably, guest designers Simone Rocha (the Irish designer chose the occasion to host her first ever menswear show), and DSM Kei Ninomiya, a brand led by the eponymous Japanese designer for Comme des Garçons concept store, Dover Street Market. Both provided intriguing takes on contemporary menswear: a the former, an exploration of ‘tender masculinity’, the latter, a group of brooding punks (albeit with poseys of flowers in their hair). Alongside, there were events from Gucci, Margaret Howell and Brunello Cucinelli – the latter a longtime fixture of the fair, beginning proceedings each season with a sprawling dinner on night one.
‘Navigating the future: this is the message and the objective guiding the construction of the upcoming cycle of fashion fairs,’ said Ivano Cauli, the recently appointed CEO of Pitti Immagine, of the fair, which continues to draw guests despite a tricky climate for global retail. ‘In a historical moment defined by complex geopolitical shifts and an ever-evolving global scenario, the physical fair in Florence confirms itself as the most vital compass for welcoming and guiding the dialogue between supply and demand. We open the doors of the Fortezza da Basso to a high-level international community of buyers and press and curate for them an immersive journey into innovation, demonstrating that creative synergy is the primary engine of growth for companies and for the sector.’
Here, we pick out some of the standout moments from Pitti Uomo 110, which concluded yesterday evening (18 June 2026).
Brunello Cucinelli opens menswear month with a Florentine dinner
There is always a first-day-back-at-school feel to Brunello Cucinelli’s twice-yearly dinners at Pitti Uomo: held on the first evening of the fair, they have come to mark the start of Men’s Fashion Month. This season, the dinner took place in the cloisters of the 14th-century Santa Maria Novella church, where long tables had been erected on the lawns and guests – including Paul Anthony Kelly, who plays John F Kennedy Jr in Ryan Murphy’s Love Story – were serenaded by the trill of a live jazz band (an as-usual generous spread from the Umbrian designer included his famous paccheri tomato pasta, scooped from enormous metal pans straight onto guests’ plates). The day after, we viewed his S/S 2027 collection at the Fortezza da Basso – where the main Pitti Uomo fair is held each season – which saw Cucinelli embrace a mood of eclecticism, in part inspired by a William Shakespeare quote, ‘Thought is Free’ (the designer imagined his protagonist for the season as ‘free-thinking and individual’). Highlights included a series of rainbow-hued cable-knit sweaters, their unique, sun-faded look created the use of resin in the dyeing process (it also makes each one entirely unique), while tailoring came in crisp blue denim.
Simone Rocha channels ‘tender masculinity’ as Pitti Uomo’s guest designer
Irish designer Simone Rocha chose Pitti Uomo to present her first dedicated menswear collection on Thursday evening, following a long line of notable designers – among them Grace Wales Bonner, Giorgio Armani and Raf Simons – who have served as the fair’s guest designer. Speaking to Wallpaper* prior to the show she said she relished the chance to hone in on her menswear offering, which she has previously shown via lookbook or as part of her womenswear show in London. ‘Splitting the collections up rather than showing them together has really changed the way I’ve thought about menswear,’ she said. ‘It’s been great to give it this undivided attention to detail, because menswear is so much more detail-orientated than womenswear anyway. There’s really nowhere to hide with it.’
‘What I love the most in design is contrast, or tension,’ she continued. ‘Just as I’m always trying to conjure a femininity that’s not too sweet, with menswear I am drawn to the more tender aspects of masculinity. I’m trying to peel back the layers and see what sensitivity and poetry is available to play with.’ Taking place on the stage of Florence’s Teatro della Pergola, it led the designer to subvert the classic menswear wardrobe with moments of sweetness – from boas crafted from organza feathers to cornflower-blue adornment, while delicate aprons and pinafores also featured. One inspiration, she said, was the Merchant Ivory film of E.M. Forster’s ‘A Room with a View’. ‘There’s so much whimsy, and rebellion, and innocence in that story. It’s set in a different time but touches on so much contemporary feeling.’
READ: Simone Rocha on her first-ever menswear show: ‘I’m drawn to the more tender aspects of masculinity’
Herno continues to forge its men’s wardrobe
Recent seasons have seen Italian fashion house Herno, best known for its signature outerwear (it pioneered a way of treating cotton with castor oil to make it waterproof in the late 1940s), expand its offering towards a comprehensive wardrobe for men and women across categories. The brand, which remains one of Pitti Uomo’s banner names, revealed its S/S 2027 collection at the fair, drawing on idea of travel for inspiration (‘an elegance designed for different places, seasons, and cities’). It meant the introduction of ‘Herno Flight’, a new collection of lightweight pieces designed for packing – most of the pieces are constructed from crease-proof fabrics (from stretch wool to technical materials), while functional details include elements like passport-sized pockets. To coincide, Herno has also developed a cabin-sized trolley, made in collaboration with FPM Milano, with logo-embossed leather handles.
Palazzo Gucci enters a new era under Demna
Palazzo Gucci, which has formerly been known as the Gucci Museo and the Gucci Garden, is the house’s spiritual home: occupying a 14th-century Palazzo in the city where Guccio Gucci founded the label in 1921, it originally served as the Florence headquarters and archive of the brand before becoming a museum in 2011 (the year Gucci turned 90). This month, under new creative director Demna, Palazzo Gucci has undergone a reinvention, with the installation of a new immersive exhibition titled ‘Gucci Storia’. Telling the story of Gucci in the Georgian designer’s unexpected style – from custom-made tapestries first shown at Fuorisalone to a gleaming white archive of some of the house’s more surprising objects – the display culminates in a futuristic oracle designed to offer visitors a glimpse of their future (Gucci-style, naturally). Also on the premises, Gucci Osteria – curated by three-Michelin-star chef Massimo Bottura – welcomes a new executive chef, the Japan-born Takahiko Kondo.
READ: Palazzo Gucci in Florence enters a bold new chapter under Demna
DSM Kei Ninomiya gets punk
Japanese designer Kei Ninomiya is part of the Comme des Garçons roster, showing his eponymous line, Noir Kei Ninomiya, each season during womenswear in Paris (he is known for an avant-garde approach defined by intriguing fabrications and sculptural silhouettes). In 2025, Dover Street Market, the concept store founded by Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo and her partner, Adrian Joffe, enlisted Ninomiya to helm an in-house line, DSM Kei Ninomiya. Running with the tagline ‘untitled, untethered, undefined’, it was described at the time of its launch as ‘more accessible and thematic, and for all ages and genders’, with early pieces having a merch-like sensibility. One of this season’s guest designers, the show took place in the courtyard of the former convent Sant’Orsola, with Ninomiya’s brooding protagonist for the season embracing punk attire – from safety pin and chain adornments to tartan kilts and leather biker jackets – albeit with a sense of whimsy and play, like the towering spiked hair crested with colourful posies of flowers.
Margaret Howell reveals a collaboration with Dr Martens
Margaret Howell opened her Florence store in 2015 during Pitti Uomo; in the years since, the British designer has often hosted events during the fair (the address is a nod towards her longstanding ties with Italian manufacturers and craftspeople). This season, she used the event to reveal a collaboration between MHL (a diffusion line which is often rooted in workwear silhouettes) and footwear brand Dr Martens, comprising a reinterpretation of 1461 shoe work shoe, which was first launched in 1961 (as such it marks its 65th birthday this year). Howell’s version is made from chrome-free leather by C.F. Stead, a Leeds-based tannery (it is designed to patina over time) and constructed in Dr Martens’ Made in England factory in Northamptonshire. In limited-edition numbers, they will be available in black and brown on July 16 2026 – our eyes are on the latter.
Polimoda fashion school celebrates 40 years
The Italian fashion school Polimoda was founded in 1986 through a collaboration between the Italian government and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, making this year’s graduate show – which takes place during the summer edition of Pitti Uomo each year – a celebration of the institution’s 40th anniversary. The backdrop for the show was the school’s recently opened Manifattura Campus, a sprawling 10,000 sq m facility housed in a former cigar factory in the north-west of the city. This year, Lucie and Luke Meier – the former creative directors of Jil Sander, who met at the school 25 years ago – joined directors Massimiliano Giornetti and An Vandevorst in mentoring this year’s graduating class. There were 22 collections from 22 designers in total, with eclectic references spanning the cinematic (David Lynch and Pier Paolo Pasolini were both cited as inspirations) and the personal, with themes of identity, heritage and belonging running through the energetic show.