Pitti Through the Ages is an insightful exploration series focusing on Pitti’s history and enduring legacy in menswear.
Words @samutaro
Two different fashion worlds collided at Pitti Uomo’s 90th edition in the summer of 2016, when Russian streetwear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy and menswear legend Raf Simons presented their S/S 17 collections at the fair. Pitti’s decision to showcase two of the most relevant designers of the time was backed by the growing presence of streetwear in menswear, which was reaching its peak that year.
Belgian designer Simons had long been recognised for his taste for grunge, street-culture and underground music with minimalistic and intellectual late 90's fashion statements. Not only were his seasonal collections revered by fans the world over, but his archival designs from the late 90s were getting plenty of airtime in streetwear thanks to big name celebs like Kanye West and Travis Scott wearing his iconic designs in their music videos and onstage performances. Simons’ designs, much like that of his Antwerp contemporaries like Margiela and Helmut Lang, were already making an impression on the streets of Florence years before his runway show at the fair.
Channelling a similar spirit of teen angst and 90s youth, Moscow-based streetwear and sportswear prodigy Ruchinskiy had enjoyed a meteoric rise at that point thanks to his subverted take on post-soviet youth uniforms. For his Pitti show Rubchinskiy dedicated his collection to the spirit of change and sought inspiration from the excitement of being invited to present for the first time-ever at Pitti Uomo in Italy. The show took place at Manifattura Tabacchi—an abandoned ‘30s tobacco factory that was purposefully selected because of its resemblance to a number of locations in and around Europe, and Russia's-bordering, Eastern Bloc. Translated literally, this equated to a collection that married Gosha's Russian roots with Pitti Uomo's storied heritage.
The forty teenagers Rubchinski recruited off Instagram to walk his show, all dressed in his collaborations with Fila, Sergio Tacchini and Kappa like a 80s tribe of fashion-obsessed football fans were representative of the streetwear revolution happening in menswear that year. Pitti itself had exploded way beyond its original roots as a trade fair for tailoring, growing to become an essential stop on the menswear fashion calendar. By 2016, hundreds of buyers, bloggers, stylists, editors, influencers, and wannabe fashion insiders began making the show a destination in between the stops in London and Milan. As the show's presence grew and more youth focused platforms like Hypebeast and Highsnobiety began documenting the street style, Pitti naturally became a more attractive proposition for fashion-forward men. That’s not to say that streetwear never existed at the show before. From as early as 2010, there have been dudes turning up in smartened skate and punk looks from the likes of Supreme, Undercover and the luxury streetwear designs that Ricardo Tisci was delivering at Givenchy during the time.
As this new millennial uniform boomed it came with some ramifications for street style at Pitti. What was once all about Pitti Peacocks – the men in Quality Street shades of tailoring, soon shifted the gaze to every other strain of menswear, from streetwear-heads to minimalists to the downright show-offs. Now you’re just as likely to spot men in a Virgil Abloh-designed Louis Vuitton puffa and Dior Jordan sneakers as you are a tweed coat and loafers. “Pitti Uomo used to be predominantly about classic tailored menswear, and though this still has a strong presence, the fair now puts a stronger impact on streetwear and the avant-garde” detailed Highsnobiety back in 2017.
Social media has certainly had a helping hand in the streetwear explosion — bold logos and graphics resonate with image-obsessed consumers. Now that Instagram is the definitive platform for discovering fashion, it's not surprising that the Pitti street style gallery’s on pages like Grailed or NSS Magazine push the looks that feature the bold logos of hype labels or exclusive products from covetable brands in order to pique interest amongst their younger audiences. This undoubtedly helped spread the word about Pitti Uomo, and naturally helped to bring a new type of audience to the event and broadened its appeal.
Some magazines have gone as far to say that the new generation of streetwear posers visiting the show are fast replacing the OG Pitti Peacocks. “Where were all the Pitti Peacocks?” asked Monocle in 2018. “These Italian men, who famously come dressed to the nines (in three-piece suits, top hats and the rest) and spend their days posing, were far less omnipresent than in previous seasons. Many attribute this to the fact that these dandies have finally embraced streetwear (that most ubiquitous of phenomena) and so were wearing trainers and hoodies, much like everyone else."
Pitti’s introduction of runway shows, poaching high profile designers from major city schedules has also been a big draw in attracting a younger and more diverse crowd. Over the past few years names like Virgil Abloh have shown his Off-White collection, American artist turned-designer and Raf Simons collaborator Sterling Ruby has debuted collections during the Pitti schedule. At Pitti Uomo 96 in 2018, Florence played host to one of the most exciting shows to date for streetwear enthusiasts when Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER and fellow Japanese streetwear alumni Takahiro Miyashita of The Soloist presented a joint runway show.
For fans of fashion as cultural expression, the back-to-back show was a treat on all fronts. It was a rare menswear outing by two of the most forward-thinking designers working today. The last time UNDERCOVER showed menswear was here in 2009; Takahiro Miyashita has not shown The Soloist on the runway, except earlier in Tokyo that year. As you’d expect with such a standout moment, the street style outside the show didn’t disappoint either.
So what can we expect from the street style of Pitti Uomo in the future? If recent runways are anything to go by then it looks like tailoring could be well on the way back in. Streetwear has dominated the mens landscape for the past four years, but even Virgil Abloh, the pied-piper of the movement proclaimed streetwear to be dead last year. Abloh’s recent collections at Louis Vuitton along with other streetwear alumni like Kim Jones and Matthew Williams have been shaking up tailoring with a new youthful approach that feels more relaxed, modern and designed in a way that doesn’t feel stuffy. With the global pandemic continuing to halt any further physical shows happening anytime soon, we will have to wait and see what the future holds. Perhaps the sweatpants that we’ve all become accustomed to might be the star of the show. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons made a valid case for that for S/S 21 and with Simons track record for setting men’s trends it might not be far off either.
