After the unceremonious cancellation of London Fashion Week men’s back in April, dedicated spaces for menswear runways are dwindling fast, which is why Pitti Uomo now plays an even more important role in the fashion calendar. Though the main part of the Florentine fashion week is the trade fair at Fortezza de Basso – where numerous brands set up shop to present their new collections to buyers – it’s the runway shows that give the event its zeal. Pitti’s rotating door of Guest Designers always brings in huge crowds to the city, and this season LVMH finalist Niccolò Pasqualetti, Korean label Post Archive Faction, and Japan’s own Homme Plissé Issey Miyake were all on hand to do so. For all of that and more, here’s everything that went down at this season’s Pitti.

MICHÈLE LAMY ALMOST STOLE THE SHOW ON DAY ONE

Before all those guest designers arrived, though, the students at Polimoda – Italy’s most famous fashion school – officially kicked off proceedings on Monday with their 2025 Graduate show. Featuring 20 designers and 100 looks altogether, a jury of industry insiders gathered for the show, and they’ll eventually crown Best Collection 2025 (though the winner is yet to be revealed).

Looking on from the front row, jury member Michèle Lamy almost stole the show at Pitti this season, and it was only day one. Seated next to Belgian artist Luc Tuymans, Lamy started playfully bashing him with her huge shoulder pads, and afterwards was followed around by a gaggle of starstruck students as she perused the collections backstage. Luckily, though, she didn’t pull focus too much – the students delivered some standout collections, which we covered in more detail here.

ISSEY MIYAKE TOOK OVER A 14-CENTURY VILLA…

Next up was Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, which left its usual Paris Fashion Week catwalk behind for a spot as Pitti’s ‘Guest of Honour’ this season. On the Wednesday afternoon, guests were bussed outside the centre of Florence to the 14th-century Villa Medicea della Petraia, one of the many homes of the infamous Medici family, a very powerful bunch of bankers who influenced the political landscape for over five centuries. The Japanese brand had taken over the villa, not just for the runway but for an exhibition that revealed the creative process behind the collection. 

The exhibition, called Amid Impasto of Horizons, was held in the grand entrance hall of the villa, and featured various objects that inspired the colour palette of the collection – like tomatoes and aubergines – and also the studio’s experiments in dyeing and fabrication. The exhibition was our introduction to ‘Open Studio’, a new concept from Homme Plissé Issey Miyake where it travels around the world to debut its collections in places it’s never shown before, and collaborate with the local scene in the process.

…FOR AN EXPLOSION OF COLOUR IN ITS HISTORIC GARDENS

After the exhibition and welcome drinks, guests were led to the lower garden of the  sprawling estate, taking their seats amid the fountains and hedges of the villa. As sprinklers showered mist over the lawns, models crunched the gravelled paths in the house’s signature pleats. Taking inspiration from the natural and cultural landscape of Italy, tunics and smocks appeared in deep blues and greens, while white capes drew from the country’s painterly history, splotched with colour like an artist’s palette. Blazers and trousers featured gradient tones from brown to red to orange, inspired by the built-up layers of paint on a brush, while the travelling suit bag was reconstituted as a flowing anorak with the hanger still built into its hood.

NICCOLÒ PASQUALETTI BROUGHT THE DRAMA ON DAY FOUR

On the fourth day, former LVMH prize finalist Niccolò Pasqualetti presented his latest collection at the impressive Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the city’s brutalist opera house. But rather than stage the show inside, Pasqualetti chose the outside roof of the building to debut SS26, underneath the beating Italian sun (but with some fans on the seats to keep guests cool).

Though this was technically Pasqualetti’s first standalone menswear show, the designer continued his exploration into androgynous dressing, putting male models in bandeau tops, bodysuits, pleated skirts and halternecks. Leather capes fell from models’ shoulders, and the colour palette remained muted and naturalistic, in creams and stones and khaki greens.

POST ARCHIVE FACTION DRIFTED THROUGH SAND DUNES

Closing out the week was Post Archive Faction, the Korean label from designers Dongjoon Lim and Sookyo Jeong. Since it was founded in 2018, the brand has been defined by a sportswear aesthetic, mixing avant-garde deconstruction with functional gorpcore. But for the label’s spot as Pitti Uomo’s Guest Designer, Lim and Jeong offered a more elevated proposition, with slouchy tailored separates, satin bombers and crisp white shirts. 

As models walked the runway, sand poured from the ceiling to form small dunes below (maybe hinting that they’re building on what they’ve offered before? ) and a burnt-orange backdrop lit up the runway like a sunset. But despite the detour into smarter territory, PAF still retained its “anti-fashion” cred, with tops shredded to pieces and a sombre palette throughout. Inspired by the theme ‘Drifters’, the design duo revealed in show notes that the collection was all about “movement without urgency, guided by rhythm, not destination.”

Scroll through the gallery above for all the best bits from Pitti Uomo SS26