Italy opens men’s fashion season with Pitti Uomo, Milan Fashion Week

The Fall/Winter 2024-25 season is kicking off on Tuesday January 9, opening with a week of men’s fashion in Italy. The first stop is in Florence for Pitti Uomo, the world’s leading menswear show, whose theme this year, ‘time’, is reflected in the ‘Pitti Time’ slogan. The event will showcase a host of prestigious special guests and will end on January 12. It will be immediately followed by Milan Fashion Week, ending on January 16 and featuring 22 runway shows, with, among others, come-backs by Fendi, Gucci and Philipp Plein, and a debut show by Stone Island.

Nearly 832 exhibitors have registered for the 105th edition of Pitti Uomo – 46% of them coming from outside Italy – compared to 825 last June and 789 in January 2023. The focus is on international design, as shown by Neudeutsch, a new section dedicated to the latest generation of German designers, by the Margaret Howell exhibition focusing on the covers of Architectural Review magazine, and the partnership with French menswear association Promas, notably featuring maiden presentations by labels Ouest Paris and Valette Studio. Instead, the S Style section, one of Pitti Uomo’s most interesting recent initiatives, introduced in 2020 to promote new, cutting-edge sustainable international labels, has been suspended.

Among Pitti Uomo 105’s must-see events, the show by US designer Todd Snyder, who will kickstart the jamboree with his runway come-back. Snyder, who in 2011 founded his eponymous label in New York, where he has been showing until four years ago, will unveil for the occasion the Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder collection, a new premium heritage line by Woolrich, the US label whose style Snyder is now overseeing. The collection will also be presented in Milan.

The next day, Wednesday, Pitti Uomo will host Luca Magliano, showing again in Florence exactly six years after debuting there with his Magliano label, whose highly personal style is influenced by different subcultures. On Thursday January 11, Finnish designer Achilles Ion Gabriel, Creative Director of Camper, will stage a show presenting his new, eponymous label’s first collection. The day will end with a show by Steven Stokey Daley, the Liverpudlian designer who won the LVMH Prize in 2022. Stokey Daley specialises in sophisticated, inventive menswear, refreshing the codes of traditional British elegance with his S.S. Daley label, launched in 2020.

Milan Fashion Week Men will take over the baton from Pitti Uomo, opening on January 12 with Gucci. The Italian luxury label is returning to the menswear calendar with the first collection designed by Sabato De Sarno. On the same day, another first, the show by Stone Island, the directional, high-tech outerwear brand bought by the Moncler group in 2021, an event that is set to be quite dazzling. Also back on the Milanese calendar, among others, are Philipp Plein, whose menswear previously used to show with womenswear; Fendi, back in Milan after presenting its men’s collection in Florence last June; and K-Way, showing for the winter season only.

This season, Milan will have to do without big names like Valentino, one of the main attractions in June, which has opted to return to Paris, and Etro, which has decided to focus on a new, bespoke men’s tailoring project, unveiled this week, while its regular menswear will show with womenswear in February. 1017 Alyx 9SM, the label by US designer Matthew M. Williams bought by Hong Kongese billionaire Adrian Cheng, is also leaving Milan, where it had been showing since January 2022.

Three other labels have also dropped out of the Milanese calendar: 44 Label Group, launched by Berlin DJ-producer Max Kobosil under the aegis of businessman Claudio Antonioli; Loverboy, the label by Scottish designer Charles Jeffrey, leaving Milan Fashion Week after three seasons; and Magliano, this year’s guest of honour at Pitti Uomo.

Like last season, Milan Fashion Week Men will feature a reduced programme with 22 runway shows, including a double one by Giorgio Armani. The event will unfold over two full days and two half-days, with the addition of five digital shows streamed during the final morning, on Tuesday January 16. In total, there are 74 events on the calendar, as opposed to 72 in June, including shows by top Italian names like Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Zegna, plus a plethora of presentations and special events.

Sunday January 14 will notably mark the debut of Pronounce, an Italian-Chinese menswear label launched in 2016 by Yushan Li and Jun Zhou, which has been showing in London until now. The presentations programme includes debuts by Domenico Orefice, Institution by Galib Gassanoff, LaTorre, Mordecai, Noskra, Rubeus Milano, Stuart Weitzman, ViaPiave33, and Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder, as well as the return of Philippe Model Paris, under new creative director Tuomas Merikoski.