Pitti Uomo Is Back at It With Retooled Heritage Menswear Codes for Fall 2025
FLORENCE — The overarching question that has permeated fashion conversations among Pitti Uomo attendees in recent seasons about the future of the menswear mecca and its need for reinvention perhaps found an answer with the winter edition, which closed Friday.
The busy halls and cautiously optimistic mood among exhibitors and buyers alike suggested that the trade show’s roots in classicism are still appealing and allowed the showcase to reclaim its spot in the menswear conversation.
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“Pitti Uomo’s fall 2025 mood was highly energized. The venue was full of the most stylish industry professionals, which offered a great source of inspiration,” said Reginald Christian, senior fashion manager, menswear at Saks Fifth Avenue.
“It was reassuring to feel more buzz and activity across the fair this season. Following a tough year for many brands there was a sense of determination and optimism for the season to come,” echoed Mytheresa’s menswear buying director Sophie Jordan.
Although brands were not here to make fashion revolutions, they shed a subtle yet refreshing new light on heritage codes, mixing different menswear references, from the traditional mannish fabrics and workwear tropes to sharp tailoring and cool grandpa knits.
“Menswear is still quite dynamic and Pitti remains a key destination to dig new things and connect with the key industry leaders,” said Raphaël Deray, buying manager for men’s luxury and designers at Printemps.
Bruce Pask, senior editorial director at Neiman Marcus, spotted “a distinctive focus on layering” and an “emphasis on wardrobe versatility,” as seen in the Brunello Cucinelli fall collection, a buyers’ favorite. This extended to tailoring “with suit and sport jackets often mixed with denim and more casual trousers, giving the look an everyday appeal,” Pask said.
The Return of Double-Breasted
The double-breasted suit was back in the sartorial spotlight, offered for a younger audience with softer shoulders and pleated carrot pants.
Polina Voloshyna, head of buying special projects at Rinascente, pointed to a “further hybridization of formal tailoring that got even more twisted, borrowing textures, fabrics and structural elements from casual ready-to-wear and sportswear for a more dynamic lifestyle.”
Checks, plaids, tartans, herringbones and the multitude of tweeds were the season’s comfort zone textiles, seen primarily on outerwear including raglan-sleeved statement coats.
“There continues to be an air of nostalgia within the collections as archival silhouettes and prints made a big comeback,” said Joseph Tang, fashion director at Holt Renfrew.
“Throughout the fair, there was an emphasis on British sensibilities seen through country tweeds and Donegal that offered both versatility and utility,” confirmed Young-Su Kim, men’s divisional merchandise manager at Bergdorf Goodman.
Here, some of the top brands from the show.
Caruso
A master colorist, Caruso revisited the tailored wardrobe with subtly playful and dainty twists, embodying the best of what the fair has traditionally offered: slightly advanced formalwear that pushes the envelope of traditionalism. Creative director Max Kibardin looked at archetypal menswear tropes such as the Donegal double-breasted suit, dotted for fall in brightly colored spots; the cashmere Beaver blazer, done in a cobalt blue shade for a tonal look with light purple tuxedo pants and matching shirt; the Solaro jacket with hints of rust orange layered atop a fluid, silk crepe shirt, or the traditional pinstriped power suit paired with a pink topcoat. Marco Angeloni, the Lanvin Group-owned brand’s chief executive officer, believes that Caruso’s romantic spin on masculinity — one that’s at times daring yet sophisticated and effortless — is meeting the market’s need for “renovation” and allowed it to grow double-digit in 2024.
Karl Lagerfeld
“The whole market is in flux. People are a little bit insecure, and we thought it was important to send a message of positivity, of strength, confidence, into the market in general, but also for us, it’s a confidence statement about the brand,” said Karl Lagerfeld CEO Pier Paolo Righi about the brand’s return to Pitti Uomo since 2019.
He said the vision across the different lines has been sharpened. “We might have different facets for all the different lines but one voice, one strong voice,” he said.
Unveiled at the Fortezza da Basso and complemented by a live acoustic performance by Victor Ray, the British singer and Karl Lagerfeld ambassador, the fall collection by creative director Hun Kim revolved around one of the late Lagerfeld’s distinctive garments: the white shirt. It provided an opportunity to envision a luxe — yet accessible, as Righi stressed — take on a daily, dressed-up attitude that mixes high-glam and casual cozy. Flanking the tuxedo tailoring, sometimes offered with blazers cropped at the waist for a younger spin on tradition, and the jacquard dinner blazers bearing the KL motif were more everyday options spanning from tactile shirt jackets and lean overcoats to military-infused aviator bombers. To be sure, Kim said he wanted every garment in the collection to be “well-tailored” and speak reassuringly to the brand’s clientele who may want to tap into the nice “shirt and jacket” combo as well as toss over a bomber for a more casual look.
Paul & Shark
Over the past few years, Paul & Shark has been increasingly finding its sweet spot in combining performance and a sophisticated take on gorpcore aimed at grown-ups and youngsters alike. Fueled by textile research and development, the Italian brand — whose roots in a love of the sea are now expanding more broadly to the outdoorsy lifestyle — introduced a new version of its Typhoon windbreaker in a silk trucker jacket style with a cashmere lining. The functional approach resonated also in the Agua y Viento four-in-one outerwear piece, a modular jacket one could easily see Paul & Shark customers wear for a fall city stroll, as well as on a yacht’s deck. Elsewhere, in keeping with the “Recoded” concept of revisiting archival tropes, the brand zeroed in on knitwear, for youthful and refined rugby shirts, brioche stitch knits — slightly oversize and at times in mixed media iterations combined with technical fabric — or adding detachable knit collars to its signature navy blue peacoat.
KNT
Over the past few years since introducing KNT, Kiton’s brother brand, Walter and Mariano De Matteis are progressively finding their voice and introducing the Neapolitan sartorial tradition to a whole new audience of young men who may want to ditch a blazer for a hybrid-style outerwear piece — part anorak, part field jacket — to match their sartorial pants. To be sure, save for a few easy-care, unlined suits, the fall collection repurposed suit dressing, pairing flowy bottoms with shirt jackets cropped at the waist, woolen hoodies or the more fashion-driven bomber-slash-cardigan number crafted from silk duchesse and trimmed in rib-knit wool. Mining a preppy-cool aesthetic, they also delivered a tennis-inspired capsule, rich in cable-knit cardigans, sweaters and vests. Mariano De Matteis said the brand’s sharpened vision is paying off and is tapping into a younger clientele drawn for the first time toward the Kiton universe.
Eton
The storied Swedish shirtmaker Eton continued to chart its evolution at Pitti Uomo, where it had already returned last summer for the first time in five years. CEO David Thörewik said the brand is expanding its reach — with a second New York store opened last summer and revamps planned in London and Copenhagen this year — as well as categories. The latter move was triggered by customers’ shifting preferences.
“What we have seen is that there has been this move from the business, formal look into a business casual [aesthetic], and then toward smart casual,” he said.
The latter is hinged on refined versatility and functionality, which resulted in what the executive billed as the most diverse and broad collection ever presented by the brand. The fall lineup showed an expansion of the shirt category toward new territory — think techno-wool from Italian mill Reda worked into crisp overshirts that could easily replace a blazer or unlined and lightweight blazers retaining their easy but structured silhouette — as well as a stronger focus on the garment’s adjacent categories. In the latter range, a British countryside elan informed the Made in Scotland Fair Isle crewnecks mingling with tactile sweaters in earthy colors such as mustard and forest green, as well as Donegal beanies.
Herno
Herno’s president and CEO Claudio Marenzi was vocal about the current uncertainties dominating the fashion and luxury landscape, describing it as a “structural shift” rather than circumstantial. He believes that the niche the brand has carved for itself — high-quality, understated elegance plied into a total look over the past few seasons — reflects customers’ demand for valuable investment pieces.
To be sure, the fall collection expanded the brand’s vocabulary of essentials, trying for the first time to also lure more fashion-savvy customers with slightly oversize fits for tops and pants, as well as glossy puffers. Doubling down on its manufacturing know-how and revisiting the archives, cashmere and silk blends or alpaca wool were plied into vanisè jacquard knits, knitted hoodies layered under raglan-sleeved topcoats in heritage Prince of Wales patterns or garment-dyed field jackets with patch pockets.
The key outerwear category was reinvented with a more contemporary edge in mixed media iterations embedding nylon, or leather and suede details, as well as in the layered looks, with quilted overshirts, for example, serving as warming shells for a trans-seasonal wardrobe. “We’re living in a perennial midseason,” Marenzi opined.
The season also marked the introduction of a new sneaker design at the intersection of running and lifestyle that suggested Herno’s next big ambition in the accessories category.
L.B.M. 1911
A brand rooted in the Italian formalwear tradition, L.B.M. 1911 is subtly retooling its silhouette, as well as expanding its offering as knitwear and outerwear grow in appeal and business, said Giovanni Bianchi, head of design for parent company Lubiam. Suits were retooled with roomier pants and fitted, cropped blazers, oftentimes offered in double-breasted versions in the vein of the ‘70s look.
Working a color palette that added burgundy and plum, in addition to olive green, as new neutrals — very much in sync with what was trending at the fair for fall — the brand plied cashmere and wool blends or alpaca jerseys into voluptuous coats, featuring raglan sleeves and oversize lapels. They mingled with sartorial takes on overshirts and aviator jackets crafted from hairy wools, as well as double-breasted shawl-collared knit jackets layered atop striped or solid mohair sweaters. Aiming to push the envelope of classicism and cater to a younger, fashion-forward clientele, the brand’s Black Out capsule included refined yet young suits with pleated pants and fitted blazers standing out for their unfinished hems.
Rag & Bone
Rag & Bone’s head of menswear designer Robert Geller brought a flair of downtown New York in the ‘80s to Pitti Uomo, unveiling an expanded range for fall that evoked a grungy vibe through a moody color palette of charcoals, muds, dark grays and browns. In the core jeanswear category the signature Infuse dyeing technique resulted in a range of worn-in denim bottoms that further cemented the brand’s authority in the category. They were complemented by a full look that subtly mined references to American menswear coolness, such as work and utility attire. Shirt jackets and textured knits mingled with trucker jackets and a new range of technical gear. The brand also introduced its first tuxedo and suit, layered over denim jackets and T-shirts. “Our version of tailoring has to be a little bit textured and special. Even when the guy gets dressed up, he still wants to have a little bit of cool attitude,” Geller said.
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