This past week, the historic city of Florence in the North of Italy hosted it’s 90th instalment of the world-famous Pitti Uomo, and we had a chance to make a pitstop here before heading onwards to Milan Fashion Week. And I’m almost sure I know what most of you are thinking; “what exactly is Pitti Uomo?!”. You’ve probably seen the street style of the extremely dapper guys sitting outside on the world famous ledge, or heard about your favourite fashion personalities attending, but unless you’ve travelled to Firenze and been given access to the event, you might never know. Thankfully, you have us to give you all the details.
Pitti Uomo is a world class, well established and high regarded Exhibition and Tradeshow which exclusively features menswear. And when we say menswear, we mean literally anything a man could or should need in their lives. From custom ties, shirts, suits and jackets to sneakers, wallets, travel cases, sunglasses to shoe horns, walking canes, umbrellas, rings, etc. The very well organized and private industry event invites brands and manufacturers from the entire world to come together and showcase their latest collections, so that buyers and press can prepare the public for whats to come. All of this was categorized into roughly six different ‘types’ of clothing, each of which was housed in its own space and merchandised as such. The large and looming exhibition space featured outdoor booths with separate indoor spaces which included Just Like A Man, Futuro Maschile, Born in the USA, OPEN, Urban Panorama, I Play, and my favourite, UNCONVENTIONAL.
While European, American and Asian designers and merchants produced impressive displays of their newest gear for Spring/Summer 2017, some designers like Raf Simons even organized an open air Runway Show to highlight his latest digs. Karl Lagerfeld held an exhibition, and countless designers hosted dinners and cocktails party to mingle with industry insiders.
Exciting? Absolutely! But this huge fare is not for the faint of heart – the attendees and the organizers mean serious business, and as we wandered through the various spaces and took in everything that everyone has to offer for next season, we realized why an event like this is private and only open to carefully selected and vetted attendees. Of course, for some attendees, the most important aspect of Pitti Uomo is ‘peacocking’ as in dressing in their most stunning and classic menswear regalia to get photographed by the street style photographers!
Pitti Imagine, the organization behind Uomo, holds exhibitions such as these throughout the year which feature children’s wear, fragrances, and design pieces and accessories.
