Men's fashion becomes a forum for political debate on the catwalks of Pitti Uomo

The 105th edition of the Pitti Uomo men's fashion fair, which concluded this Friday, January 12 in Florence, has shown that a commercial event, an institution in the world of the most classic and luxurious clothing, can also be a forum for political debate. The singer Samantha Hudson, an icon of the scene underground and Spanish LGTBI, participated as a model in the presentation show of Achilles Ion Gabriel, the fashion brand of the Finnish designer famous for his work as creative director of Camper. The collection, based on the deconstruction of the traditional silhouette of the suit and the urban wardrobe, has several striking effects: rigid fabrics, modeled and wrinkled in a sculptural way; shoulder pads that extend beyond the conventional; luxuriously tailored pinstripe suits with exaggerated proportions and materials that, like leather, are dyed and worn until they acquire the texture of old cardboard.

Calling this show “mixed” may possibly be an anachronism: in the countercultural, hybrid and infinitely diverse beauty of the chosen models, gender has long ceased to be a concern. The young designers presenting their collections at Pitti Uomo illustrate a generational change. “Fashion, especially that of young designers, is like a seismograph to perceive the telluric movements that are changing the world,” explains Francesca Tacconi, coordinator of special events at Pitti Uomo and responsible, therefore, for the fashion show program. “For example, no one says it is sustainable anymore, because for these designers it is taken for granted, it is like the starting point.”

The British Steven Stokey Daley, the new winner of the LVMH 2022 prize, used the impressive surroundings of the Cinquecento Hall of the Palazzo della Signoria, a symbol of power in Renaissance Florence, to talk about the social tensions of the class system in the United Kingdom , a recurring theme in his career. “We wanted Florence to speak to us,” he commented shortly before the show regarding a collection inspired by the mix of “formality and intimacy” of the boarding schools of the English elite, and which translates that tension in the form of shirts that are reminiscent of pajamas. , cloth coats with trimmings and padded jackets that refer to nobility. Daley is famous for his exquisite Victorian-flavored garments, with embroidery and knitted details, and also for his narrative talent that reinterprets the topics of the education of English elites from gender dissidence. To create his collection, he was inspired by a set of letters exchanged between two young lovers who shared the same boarding school in 1935.

There is also social tension in the speech of Magliano, one of the most promising names in young Italian fashion, whose participation in Pitti has been more of a comeback: here, five years ago, he presented his first show, after winning the youth award. designers organized by the fair. His participation reminds us that the fashion shows are a visible facet, but not the main one, of a commercial event that this year has improved its numbers and brought together 825 brands, 11,900 buyers and 17,000 attendees. Among the brands that have returned are the luxury brands Tod's and Fay, both owned by Diego della Valle's group, or the American giant Guess, which has presented the relaunch of its Guess Jeans brand. That proposals like Magliano's coexist harmoniously in this environment is one of those peculiarities that give the Italian industry its reason for being.

Magliano, a Bolognese in a sector dominated by Lombards, has presented garments that are carefully made and sophisticated – for example, in this collection he has collaborated with the Neapolitan tailoring shop Kiton, where two suits have been made by hand, and with the hat workshop Borsalino ― and extraordinary fabrics that coexist with its usual theme: a critical discourse that addresses masculinity, class struggle and politics. “Gender is a landscape, there is much more between the macho man and the little princess, it is a journey, and one of the values ​​of fashion is to express those identities that are in the middle,” Luca Magliano explained at the press conference prior to the show. , held in a sports hall on the outskirts of the Italian city. There, a huge staircase that Magliano considers a tribute to Donna sotto le stelle, the popular television program that staged Italian fashion of the nineties on the steps of the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. “The collective identity queer Italian was also built with these images,” Magliano recalls.

However, in the parade that allusion to glamor vintage was filtered by a dramatic, serious atmosphere, with a selection of atypical models and pieces that avoid the easy to reinterpret everyday clothing in an emotional and poetic, almost dystopian key. “My speech is always linked to the topic of work, and also to a certain kind of elegance. It is political and social, but always in a low voice, because we do not want to fall into appropriation,” explains the designer. “What we do is take as a reference a certain popular elegance. It seems good to me that fashion is consumed by those who have money, it is a guarantee that things are done as they should be done during the production process. But the aesthetics, the beauty that we celebrate, has nothing to do with that money. In Magliano, beauty is an anti-fascist word.” In the Italy of 2024, politics is as inevitable as breathing.

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