Florence called, and the fashion world came running. On Tuesday, Pitti Uomo 108 – the latest edition of the legendary Florentine menswear trade fair – kicked off the SS26 menswear season with a bang… and a swish of sartorial power. Nearly 750 brands reimagined the city as a living moodboard, where heritage tailoring collided with avant-garde flair. To witness all the fashion action, editors, buyers and sharply dressed style obsessives descended on the Tuscan capital for four sun-soaked days of runway moments, street style and a pulse of pure menswear electricity, culminating today. More than a trade show, Pitti Uomo is a proving ground – where the future of menswear takes its first confident steps. Here are the most memorable menswear moments.
NICCOLÒ PASQUALETTI
“I am freezing. I am burning.” Sophie’s lyric blared at the end of Niccolò Pasqualetti’s SS26 show – and yes, apparently the Florence sun had guests melting like candles outside Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. But inside that heat haze, Pasqualetti sculpted something cool and quietly radical: a wardrobe untethered from gender, genre or gravity. Crafted without nostalgia and styled with abandon, this was androgynous dressing in its truest form.
The show marked Pasqualetti’s Pitti Uomo debut, and it landed like a soft revolution – military trousers flirted with swimwear, sheer shirting tangled with tank tops and indigo denim shorts flirted with tulle. Asymmetrical dungarees came speckled like Pollock paintings, tailored jackets morphed into smocks and leather bodices embraced whoever dared. Jewellery was modular, upcycled from handcrafts and clothing hung, twisted or swooped depending on its mood.
Pasqualetti doesn’t just blur boundaries – they erase and redraw them. Dressing, here, isn’t about fitting in. It’s about reimagining the act entirely.
Guess Jeans
Step into the denim dimension. This week, Guess Jeans touched down at Pitti Uomo 108 for its fourth consecutive season, transforming Fortezza da Basso into a Californian fever dream with tech-tinged flair. At the heart of the setup? An infinity mirror installation so hypnotic it could give a 2000s music video a run for its money – framing a laser customisation station that brought the brand’s Guess Airwash tech back into the spotlight after it debuted at Pitti in January of last year.
The spring 2026 collection served up West Coast nostalgia with a rebellious twist: think sun-bleached textures, nautical Americana and denim that spoke of skateparks and coastline road trips. It had a vintage feel to it (but without the dust), and remained sustainable without skimping on style.
As Guess Jeans tees up global flagship launches in Tokyo and LA, it’s clear the brand isn’t just reimagining jeans – it’s redrawing the denim map. Catch them at Pitti or scroll into the future via guessjeans.com. Either way, the fade is undeniably fresh.
Tommy Hilfiger New York
Tommy Hilfiger just brought his Manhattan swagger to Florence. Debuting his new sartorial vision – Tommy Hilfiger New York – at Pitti Uomo, the Palazzo Portinari Salviati was transformed into a prep-coded playground, reimagined as the ‘Hilfiger Social Club.’ Red, white and blue cocktails clinked as modern-day Ivy Leaguers mingled in reworked club blazers, silk-knit polos and airy, dot-perforated suiting – all part of the new collection.
For spring 2026, it was Tommy at his most grown-up (but still cheeky): tailoring with a twinkle, where linen blazers met cricket sweaters, and shorts got the Savile Row treatment. Craftsmanship remained front and center – thanks to Italian mills and precise fits – but the vibe was loose, confident and unbothered. It was like a masterclass in new prep: bold without bravado, tailored but never stiff. As Hilfiger himself put it in a release, “The art of dressing up is back” – but not without a twist of Tommy. Call it uptown polish with downtown ease. Prep school’s back in session, and it’s looking damn good.
HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE
If you ever wondered what a paintbrush’s daydream looks like, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake just answered it – with pleats, pigment and plenty of poetic flair. Unveiled as the Guest of Honour at Pitti Uomo 108, the SS26 collection Amid Impasto of Horizons transformed the historic Villa Medicea della Petraia into a wearable canvas. Inspired by Italy’s palette – from its rolling hills to its crumbling city façades – the pieces riffed on workwear, tailoring and texture: think paintbrush-holding pockets, non-sticky linen suits and jackets sharp enough to slice focaccia. A painterly print series echoed colour mixing straight from the atelier. Outside, sprinklers swayed like choreography in slow motion, blending the collection’s subtle romanticism with the villa’s Medici charm. It all formed part of Open Studio, the label’s new globe-trotting concept inviting audiences into its process. It was the kind of clothes that carry you – and carry themselves with grace. Think of it as pleats, but make it poetic.
Post Archive Faction
At Pitti Uomo 108, Post Archive Faction went far beyond showing clothes, opting instead to completely reconfigure the human silhouette. The Seoul-based experimental label unveiled its SS26 collection as a study in tension and release, slicing through the expected with angular seams, engineered fabrics and garments that seemed to be in mid-mutation.
This wasn’t your usual tailoring. Jackets twisted off-axis, trousers peeled open at the knee and technical textiles morphed across the body like wearable architecture. With PAF’s signature 3.0 and 4.0 design iterations in full force, every look walked a tightrope between dystopian uniform and poetic protection. The palette? Mostly monochrome, with flashes of volatile colour – like a system glitch or a signal flare. POV: the end is near, and you’re dressed accordingly. Now buckle up, and stay asymmetrical.
Top image: photography courtesy of Niccolò Pasqualetti.
