IN THE midst of the world’s creative turmoil, poise and polish are keeping their momentum alight in Tuscany’s capital. Will they ever unleash a playful edge?
Pitti Uomo 2025
FLORENCE, TUSCANY — Ties, collars, shirts, bows, gloves, hats, waistcoats, suits, boots and brogues: If you gather up the most mundane male trappings over time, and throw in the harder edge of masculine tailoring, you get Pitti.
And if you dissect Pitti, you get traditionalist dressing as a key cue. You can point to any number of other spectrums who’ve used that mix to create new fashion—Milan, Paris and New York fashion weeks, to mention just three. However, this season, the collections at Fortezza da Basso felt doubly familiar, partly because they seemed to link up with the poignant veil of complexity that is everywhere, and partly because some of the offerings were conventional options to wear.
Perspective really counted in this season’s presentations in terms of what you understood about the clothes. First, the floor on the central pavilion was covered, for the first few hours, with steamy air and irksome downpours that swept across the entire space. So there was the sensation of a void—for the audience and the crowds alike—and an ambiguous ambience, which, for the most part, was compensated by insiders’ sense of hope and cheerful optimism when the sun began to shine again.
Pitti Uomo 2025
Second, and most importantly, if you see this edition’s offerings face-on, you’d have the impression of timeless separates in dark, neutral hues conceived in a myriad of textiles, somewhat lean in form, with accessories that grasped a sense of colour in occasional areas.
But if you were sitting along the sides of the runways, you could perceive a different view altogether. The strictness and severity of Pitti’s conventional volumes seemed to gain more elegant trim and the suit, well, it was pared back and reduced to form. Sounds drowsy? Oops!
“Menswear is facing a profound transformation, forcefully redefining the boundaries between elegance, functionality, and innovation,” opines Pitti’s Tutoring & Consulting Director, Luca Rizzi. In a challenging and ever-evolving global economic context, the present edition represents a moment of action and collaboration, fundamental for fostering trust, sharing experiences, and building new synergies.
“Cultural influences enrich the menswear landscape, introducing new aesthetics, languages, and creative approaches,” Rizzi adds. “Tailoring, no-gender experimentation, technical sportswear and an outdoor spirit come together in offerings that respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse, aware, and watchful clientele, together with the interpretation of the most contemporary lifestyle trends, such as cycling.”
Rizzi believes that the fair continues to push boundaries in menswear, an incubator of creativity, ideas, and development, where the exchange between designers, brands, artisans, and markets opens up concrete and stimulating prospects for the future of men’s fashion. When speaking about the fair’s creative identity, this sentiment is something that echoes in Michèle Lamy’s vision for the students of the Polimoda Academy, which showcased their graduate pieces in a sweeping end-of-year show at Stazione Leopolda.
Notes on camp, cocoon trims, feather hats, and sports-inflected outerwear featured aplenty, alongside a buzzy edge of invention that permeated the runway. “The show felt a little bit of an avalanche of things, teamed with a great spirit,” opined Lamy backstage post-show.
“There’s a fantasy when you have to start something, and I think at Polimoda, one can still feel that there’s something fierce,” she adds. “The world is so horrible, so we’re here because we have to think positively: and there was a lot of humour, sometimes with a lot of innocence. But there was still that high spirit, so I really liked it.”
Scandinavian Manifesto
Scandinavian Manifesto
As every season, amid the classic twists and creative fixes brought on deck, Scandi minimalism proved to be a winning mainstay as seen across the Scandinavian Manifesto’s pavilion. “This season, we’re proud to present a curated selection of Nordic menswear and lifestyle brands that represent both the maturity and momentum of the Scandinavian fashion scene,” says Sofie Dolva, CEO at CIFF (Copenhagen’s International Fashion Fair).
From refined tailoring to technical outerwear, expressive knitwear and unisex fragrances, the Scandinavian Manifesto area reflects a broader shift toward elevated essentials, versatile items and conscious design – values that continue to define this region.
“We’ve chosen brands that challenge conventions and seasonality while staying grounded in functionality and longevity,” she argues. “As menswear becomes increasingly fluid and lifestyle-driven, this season sees a growing appetite for quiet confidence over statement dressing; indeed, it’s a space where Scandinavian brands excel. “Pitti Uomo provides the ideal backdrop to showcase the Scandinavian design philosophy and contemporary style,” notes Dolva.
Manuel Ritz
Manuel Ritz
Manuel Ritz
Sartorial elements that meet technical details in a refined interplay with an off-duty attitude also seem to hit the mark this season. Manuel Ritz’s offerings are an example: here, looks combine elegance and ease with unexpected accents: bursts of colour, nature- and floral-inspired prints, perforated knitwear, and a standout denim selection, the true protagonist of the season. The palette transitions from earthy and aquatic tones to more vibrant shades like lava red and quartz pink, evoking the energy of the four elements.
This natural-esque aesthetic flows through Avant Toi’s vision of the new Spring outing. “This collection is inspired by a tension between Romanticism and the dandy period of the pioneers of the 1800s and a contemporary and modern era,” opines Giulia Marini, Marketing & Business Development Manager of the brand.
Avant Toi
Avant Toi
“There are colours that recall this era: earthy tones, like the brown of an antelope, the blood colour, and then the blue of the river, which, of course, passed and was fundamental for life in that period,” she adds. “There’s small floral accents, like the wisteria, which is this pale pink that we find.” What’s more, there are very important fusions between meshwork and embroidery, which have been integrated with details that can be seen across necklines, trims and wrists.
The fair did have its exciting beat of fashion, notably that of Tommy Hilfiger’s debut Pitti collection, TOMMY HILFIGER New York, which features a lineup rooted in a relaxed approach to dressing, reimagining iconic American prep through a confident, vibrant lens.
“When I started out 40 years ago, I was inspired by Savile Row tailoring—but gave it an American twist that felt more relaxed and effortless. Now that the world is returning to dressing up again, it’s the perfect time to return to Pitti Uomo and introduce a new chapter in our menswear story,” Hilfiger tells GLASS in a preview.
Tommy Hilfiger. Photograph: Craig McDean
“We’ve called it the ‘TOMMY HILFIGER New York’ collection because I always like to begin something new by going back to the brand’s roots. It will have a navy label bringing back our original lion penny crest from 1985, that we also used for our Tailoring line in 1993.” On the menswear’s current landscape, the creative director sees a push towards a simpler silhouette and a closer attention to form.
“I’m seeing men move beyond casual wear and lean into something more elevated—without losing that sense of ease and fun. The collection reflects that spirit. I love the navy suit in Air-dot performance fabrics, the club blazer in rich cool wool and textured linens, and the polo knitted in silk blends in our archival Breton stripes. It’s our heritage, reimagined for today.”
GUESS Jeans
GUESS Jeans
I can’t quite put my finger on what it is or where I sensed heritage both in presentations and on the runway, this season. But just like Hilfiger, GUESS Jeans’ Nicolai Marciano and Sebago’s Marco Tamponi have a deep curiosity, mostly aimed at contemporary times, as well as a deep knowledge of customer needs.
“California is always a forever inspiration for us: it’s where we’re from, and we keep digging into those roots by introducing a lot of new categories, textiles, shapes and looks,” says Marciano. “We started specifically with denim, and now GUESS Jeans is really blossoming into a much more lifestyle look; we’re also introducing eyewear and accessories, so everything’s just rounding out a bit more.”
The brand is also focusing on new graphics that are Malibu-centric, which act as a key inspiration this season. Speaking of the brand’s scaling, Marciano points to countries like India and emerging markets as a primary source of development and influence.
On expansion, Tamponi follows the same line of thought. “Our goal is to establish Sebago as a key player in the lifestyle landscape, expanding our offering beyond footwear to increasingly embrace the world of apparel,” he says. “At this edition of Pitti Uomo, we’re presenting Sebago in a 360-degree view, with complete looks that range from casual menswear to American heritage style. We want to build a strong and coherent presence in the menswear segment, highlighting our authentic identity and making it instantly recognisable.”
Sebago
Amid the sea of brands that were part of this edition, the problem, however, is that these very structured forms, if not the researched essentialism behind them, have a little more to do to feel more contemporary. There are undoubtedly many men who want to look super polished, but they also might appreciate less rigid formulas and more looseness of mind from these offerings. All in all, simplicity made for compelling craft.
by Chidozie Obasi