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Florence doesn’t engage in the sport pretty like anyone else. In London, Paris, New York, and even just a pair hrs north in Milan, the entire “fashion week” point is all about, well…fashion reveals. In Florence, the hulking behemoth that is the Pitti Uomo trade show—1,200 exhibitors, courting more than 21,000 purchasers this year—demands a various method.
“We do not want to enter into the normal manner 7 days approach,” suggests Raffaello Napoloeone, the CEO of Pitti Imagine, the organization driving Pitti Uomo and its sibling fairs. “Florence has to participate in a role of a system from which you start new projects or present new concepts. We do not want to just pick up one particular trend exhibit from Milan, Paris, or London.”
Of system, that does not indicate that designers who normally exhibit in a person of individuals manner capitals will not hop around to the Medicis’ old stomping grounds from time to time. Jil Sander, generally on the calendar in Paris, confirmed its fall 2020 menswear assortment at Pitti this time. In the refectory of Santa Maria Novella, on a runway heaped with gigantic piles of marigolds, spouse-and-spouse designers Luke and Lucie Meier introduced pared-down but sumptuously inviting tailoring, complemented by lavish knitwear and outerwear, and punctuated by touches of silver jewellery and embellishment that lent a feeling of levity (and hand-crafting) to the entire affair.
But while Jil Sander is absolutely a huge identify, that wasn’t the purpose the Meiers arrived to Florence. “It’s a tale,” says Napoleone. The history to that tale goes anything like this: The label has had its honest share of shakeups above the many years, with a number of acquisitions by different corporations, and founder Jil Sander herself leaving and rejoining the label 2 times right before ultimately exiting for good. The Meiers—Lucie logged time at Dior, although Luke labored at Supreme for practically a decade—took the helm in 2017, and have been met with the two commercial and important success.
All wonderful, but there is a significantly Pitti ingredient at perform, as well: the duo achieved in Florence, at the style school Polimoda. Toss that in the combine, and you’ve acquired the great mix of factors for a display. “It’s a particular job in a specific place the place it is not accurately what made use of to be the picture of a Jil Sander presentation in the previous,” says Napoleone.
Jil Sander isn’t the only label with a tale. This yr, Stefano Pillati (formerly of Zegna and Yves Saint Laurent) introduced his label Random Identities. Telfar, probably the buzziest brand name out of New York appropriate now, experienced its initially European display. And Brioni, 75 many years aged as of 2020, set itself on exhibit in a palazzo loaded with doing musicians carrying its most recent wares.
There is, aesthetically, quite minimal that connects individuals three manufacturers with one particular one more, or with Jil Sander. But they’ve all bought a tale to notify. Ditto that for final season’s guest designer, Givenchy, with Clare Waight Keller earning a solid, advanced statement for the brand’s menswear. Or, a minor more back, Craig Green giving a dualistic watch of both of those the globe and his very own assortment.
It’s not about significant names, or noticeable connection, but about crafting a narrative. Although it may not often be the most obvious commercial alternative, it is the 1 that, in accordance to Napoleone, will create Pitti as an crucial component of the fashion calendar by thick and slim. “We have a lot of providers that would like to improve us,” he suggests. And still, “We check with, constantly, to locate a tale behind it.”