The Lights of Florence: all you Need to Know About Pitti Uomo 107

It’s a good tradition to start the fashion year with the Pitti Uomo menswear fair, which took place for the 107th time from 14 to 17 January in Florence, bringing together more than 770 brands (almost half 45% from abroad) and 20,000 visitors to the Fortezza Da Basso. This year's theme was Fire as a symbol of unity, which can warm both soul and body, attract attention and point the way, as well as give us new ideas and habits, just like fashion. Here is everything you need to know about Pitti Uomo 107.

The Philosophy of MM6 Maison Margiela

The main headliner of Pitti Uomo 107 was MM6 Maison Margiela - the second, more practical and more accessible line of the house of Martin Margiela, which the designer launched in 1997. For the presentation of the Autumn/Winter 2025/26 collection, which took place in the evening in the baroque greenhouses of Tepidarium built by Florentine architect Giacomo Roster, the design studio, which prefers to remain anonymous, decided to rely on the functional classics of the men's wardrobe - suits, bombers, leather trench coats, turtlenecks, tank tops and trousers - but to enrich it with the most unusual techniques. For example, the main bomber in the collection is double-sided with faux mink fur, and the knitwear is decorated with threads of shiny lurex. The velvet suits are adorned with star patterns, the jazzman Miles Davis had a passion for similar motifs - now the design studio calls him the embodiment of Martin Margiela's style. And instead of just wrinkled black leather - the effect is deceptive - the linen ensembles are coated with a special high-tech rubber material to give them a lustrous sheen.

MM6 Maison Margiela has been around for almost 30 years, but they launched their men's line only three years ago and have always shown it together with the women's collection in Milan. At Pitti Uomo 107 in Florence, for the first time, MM6 Maison Margiela dived deeper into the menswear universe and presented a complete menswear collection, “not a supporting act to womenswear”, in their own words. What is more, for the show they wanted to cast not just models, but persons of character with signature walking habits - that’s why, the studio published an open call on their socials, and after watching thousands of video clips, chose 30 perfect profiles coming from completely different backgrounds. “We design clothes, not people. And clothes are just things, they don't have gender,” one of the studio's designers explained at the preview of the collection, emphasising how important it was for Margiela himself to always contradict himself and try something new: hence the casting of both men and women.

The show started with traditional chords of Finnish folklore (fashion insiders will smile reading these lines because it is a reference to the origin of the main designer of MM6 Maison Margiela studio, whose name is kept in strictest secrecy), which was then replaced by a piercing track “This is Hardcore” by Pulp when the heroes of the show appeared on the catwalk, dancing to the music, in men’s wardrobe staples in shades of black, purple and red wine colour, which looked both comfortable and ultra-rare desirable. And, really, who wouldn't want to be so stylish?

Setchu debut show

A graduate of London's prestigious Central Saint Martins fashion school and winner of the LVMH 2023 Fashion Prize, Japanese Satoshi Kuwata has captured the hearts of fashion insiders with his creative vision: any Setchu design starts with a piece of paper, which the Japanese folds in origami until a new functional item emerges. To show how his method works in practice, in the preview of his autumn/winter 2025/26 collection, Kuwata literally took one of the jackets off the rack and folded it before our eyes into a perfect “paper” envelope.

In the new collection, which Satoshi Kuwata decided to present in the lobbies of the subscribers of the National Central Library of Florence, he focused on large-knits, classic tailoring (Kuwata trained at Savile Row and worked on suits with one of London's oldest ateliers, Davies & Sons), check patterns (Setchu's grey version of the Scottish check was made specially at one of his favourite weaving mills in Biella in Piedmont) and neo-kimonos in silk jacquard, as well as lace designs inspired by one of his favourite novels “The Tale of Genji”. As the designer spends his time between Milan and Japan, he loves travelling light, almost all pieces can be worn in ten different ways with the help of detachable sleeves, built-in zips and special buttons.

Courtesy: Pitti Uomo

Text: Lidia Ageeva