Florence, Italy's other fashion capital, ahead of Milan Men's Fashion Week<

Florence has established itself in recent years as a reference for men's fashion: with its Pitti Uomo salon, the Tuscan city forms a real tandem with Milan, to which it will hand over on June 14 after four intense days of fashion shows and presentations. (Salvatore Ferragamo, Marco de Vincenzo and his first men's collection, Eden Park....).

"Pitti Uomo is the show that sets the tempo for all men's fashion, it's where everything happens," says Stéphane Gaffino, the founder of the French hipster chic brand L'égoïste, present for the fourth year. "We do shows in England, in the United States... but if there is a show where you have to be, it's the Pitti: it's here that there are the most spin-offs. Everyone everyone is there, there are American, Japanese, Korean buyers... We had appointments with large groups that we cannot have at other shows", he underlines.

The Pitti Uomo show is 30,000 visitors

Housed in the Fortezza da Basso, a 16th century fortress, the Pitti welcomes more than 30,000 visitors over four days, including 19,000 buyers. Nearly half of these are foreign, like the exhibitors. Clothes, shoes, accessories... the show offers everything to dress the male, whether classic or sportswear. A line of super-stylish men waits to be photographed, often stylists or small-label designers hoping to gain exposure via Instagram.

The sector is a colossus, still buoyant: the global turnover of men's fashion amounted to 389 billion euros in 2018 (+4.5% over one year) and luxury ready-to-wear male at 28 billion euros (+3.4%), according to Euromonitor International.

culture and innovation

Born in 1972, Pitti Uomo has established itself thanks to a new strategy launched 30 years ago which emphasizes "the cultural part of fashion, research, innovation", underlines general manager Raffaello. Napoleone. "In 1989, there were 400 exhibitors, mostly Italians; today there are 1,220", he says with satisfaction, recalling that the shows "French and German competitors have disappeared". The Pitti Uomo even has a waiting list, fluctuating between 350 and 500 names.

Florence's connection with fashion is ancient. It was in the Tuscan city that the first haute couture women's fashion shows were organized in 1951, based on the visionary idea of ​​businessman Giovanni Battista Giorgini, who brought in major American buyers. The made in Italy then takes the habit of parading in the Salle Blanche of the Pitti Palace. A tradition that will last until the early 80s, before Fashion Week took hold in Milan.

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Givenchy guest of honor

The Pitti always presents some beautiful names for the parades, often organized in exceptional places. It is in the garden of a grandiose villa, in the middle of cypresses and lemon trees, that the Parisian house Givenchy paraded on June 12. Last season, it was the Y/Project brand that preferred to focus on the Pitti Uomo show in Florence instead of marching in Paris. Givenchy will therefore be absent from the Parisian calendar, being the designer guest of honor at the show.

Clare Waight Keller - British-born stylist and artistic director of the LVMH group house since spring 2017 - presented the new men's collection there. “It is a great honor for us to host the first show of the Givenchy men's collection by Clare Waight Keller,” said Lapo Cianchi, Communications and Special Events Director of Pitti Immagine. "A modern, elegant and strong vision: an ideal project for Pitti Uomo. I am sure that the atmospheres and spaces of Florence will offer additional aesthetic and symbolic motivations for the house of Givenchy to focus on men's fashion".

Grand places

"Karl Lagerfeld always said that you have to do things that have never been done," said the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, friend of the fashion designer who died in February. The show proposed by Carine Roitfeld also promises to be exceptional: this multi-brand fashion show, the largest ever organised, will be set in a place offering a majestic view of the Arno river at sunset.

The June 13 show - concluded with a concert by Lenny Kravitz - will pay tribute to the 90s: "supermodels" of the time or today will parade in front of 5,000 people and the event will be broadcast in the city. For this parade organized on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of LuisaViaRoma, a Florentine boutique and online luxury sales site, Carine Roitfeld has selected 90 men's and women's silhouettes designed by major houses (Burberry, Prada...) or trendy labels for fall-winter 2019-20.

An exhibition devoted to 30 years of men's fashion

On the occasion of the Pitti Immagine Uomo, the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery presents "Romanzo breve di moda maschile", an exhibition that retraces thirty years of men's fashion from 1989 to today. Until September 29, 2019, at the Museo della Moda e del Costume at the Pitti Palace, Olivier Saillard illustrated the history and evolution of men's fashion by covering Made in Italy with the guest designers, and the talents of contemporary international fashion with the experiences of the large textile and clothing industry. “Many of the men but also the women who have made men's fashion a creative subject have passed through Florence,” said Olivier Saillard, artistic advisor for fashion & culture projects for the Piti Immagine shows. The outfits on display come from the collections presented by the designers in Florence who, from 1989 to 2018, gave life to the special events of Pitti Uomo. "Fictionalized stories of men's fashion" represents an important chapter because it will be the starting point for the constitution of a real collection of men's fashion: the Collezione di Moda Maschile of the Fondazione Discovery which will donate it to the Museo della Moda e of the Pitti Palace Costume.

After Florence, head to Milan for Spring/Summer 2020 Men's Fashion Week

A tribute was paid to Karl Lagerfeld through the work of street artist Endless. For the duration of the fair, he performed a live performance by making a portrait of the German couturier on a canvas of 5x9 meters. His work has been reproduced on a limited series of 50 T.shirts.

From June 14, Milan took over, with a kick-off given by Ermenegildo Zegna. More than 25 ready-to-wear fashion shows for spring-summer 2020 are on the program until Monday June 17, including Dolce & Gabbana, Versace and Fendi.

The fashion world will then head to Paris from June 18 to 23.