Pitti Uomo sure knows how to pick good talent. For the upcoming season of the Italian menswear design showcase, it’s just been announced that Off-White and J.W.Anderson will be its featured SS18 guest designers. 

Anderson actually announced his involvement on his Instagram a couple of days ago, but the news has been confirmed by BoF, who also added that the designer would be joined by Virgil Abloh’s Off-White. 

Showing on consecutive days (Anderson on June 14th; Off-White on the 15th), the pair will join the past alumni including Raf Simons and Gosha Rubchinskiy, who swapped Paris for Florence last June. 

Both designers have said they are honoured to be included. In a statement, Anderson said: “Florence’s aesthetic is beautiful, which will lend itself to be the perfect backdrop for the collection.”

For Abloh in particular, this comes as welcome validation – one that charts his progress from staging an event at Pitti in the past to becoming a featured designer there. “I’m honoured that Pitti recognised the work that I was doing in Paris and want to give me a platform,” he told BoF, adding that he’s looking forward to this opportunity to “take a traditional platform and offer a new take on it.”

Amongst those (now debunked) rumours of a Givenchy directorship, this latest news makes sense in the trajectory of a designer who has spoken of his ambitions to evolve Off-White and our subsequent definitions of luxury, streetwear and how the two intersect. Commenting himself, the designer says: “Showing the collection in Florence will give it a great springboard for the direction I was tracking towards anyways.” Watch this space.