“Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely
is made for the eye of one who sees”. – Gialal al-Din Rumi
The first edition of Pitti Uomo featuring men’s clothing and accessories was held in September 1972. Created essentially to promote the best of the Italian fashion industry in the big foreign markets, the fair quickly achieved an international success also in terms of proposals.
June 2016. Forty years have passed, more than seventy since for the first time Giovan Battista Giorgini had seen in the city of Florence a potential magnet for buyers from all over the world. The ninetieth edition is ready to go. What is now the Pitti Immagine Discovery presents a renewed and innovated calendar full of events and excellent guests.
The gates of the Renaissance Fortezza da Basso are about to welcome hundreds of visitors who in the four-day-fair will be reversed in that maze of pavilions covering more than 100,000 square meters. The walls surrounding the central body impatiently wait for the “bums” of those who, or fun or for passion, are searching for “the shot”, the street-photographers’ one, that will change their life.
Among the others, six are next June’s unmissable dates, also for the unyielding street-style fans.
KARL LAGERFELD-VISIONS OF FASHION
On the agenda on Tuesday 14th, 18:30.
Palazzo Pitti will host a photography exhibition curated by Eric Pfrunder and Gerhard Steidl, which represents Karl Lagerfeld’s entire photographic oeuvre and includes many unpublished works. The show assembles an extraordinary collection of more than 200 images created using a variety of techniques including daguerreotypes, platinum prints, Polaroid transfers, resinotypes, screen-prints and digital prints. It will start from the grand staircase, Scalone del Moro, and wind its way through the rooms of the Galleria Palatina, the Sala Bianca and the two rooms in the Appartamenti degli Arazzi in a continuous dialogue between the sizes of the pictures and the exhibition areas: from the smaller, subtle images to be shown in the Galleria Palatina, almost as if to punctuate the tour of the masterpiece-filled museum, to the imposing pictures in the Appartamenti degli Arazzi that converse with the beautiful tapestries on display.
FAUSTO PUGLISI – PITTI ITALICS SPECIAL EVENT
Wednesday 15th, 17:00.
The Pitti Italics Special Event will shine the spotlight on Fausto Puglisi. In a special event, he will present the international preview of his first menswear capsule collection, together with the 2017 women’s resort collection. Debuting his menswear collection, Fausto Puglisi is showing controversial work as an element of his style. Puglisi’s man is both a SuperMan and a poet. As a paradox, he takes physicality to the extreme. “This is a collection that exorcises my obsessions and vision,” noted Fausto Puglisi. “Man as a Greek myth and Mediterranean dreamer”.
GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY – MENSWEAR GUEST DESIGNER
Wednesday 15th, 19:00.
It’s the most long-awaited event along with his colleague Raf Simons’s show.
Gosha Rubchinskiy, Russian designer whose creativity has succeeded in attracting the international fashion community’s attention, will be presenting in Florence his Spring/Summer 2017 collection together with a photography project created for the event (Gosha Rubchinskiy – The Day of my Death).
“This young designer’s research combines the hard and tormenting aesthetic of post-Soviet youth culture in Russia – says Lapo Cianchi, Pitti Immagine Director of Communications and Events – “with elegant notes of sportswear and artistic concepts that come from photography and movies – true passions and essential points in his training and development. Everything is filtered and interpreted through his skillful, and almost obsessive, use of multimedia technologies. It is precisely this vibrant system of references and languages that allow him to express profound social commentary in his creations”.
VISVIM – DESIGNER PROJECT
Thurday the agenda will be full with appointments.
At 10:00 Visvim show will open the day in the wonderful di Boboli. Mr. Nakamura will present – for the first time ever – a total experience by Visvim: it will be a performance-showing of the men’s collection that includes clothes and looks for women.
Visvim will be also at Pitti Uomo trade show with a special installation in the Futuro Maschile pavilion, Sala della Ronda.
The men’s collections by Hiroki Nakamura are the result of a very eclectic approach where American-inspired workwear is refreshed by high-tech design. The materials are all top quality and craft-produced: the textiles are the fruit of his experiments conducted in cooperation with manufacturers that enjoy his total confidence. Garments acquire a new life in an offering that combines ready-to-wear clothing with cult footwear in a perfect symbiosis of heritage, content and function.
LUCIO VANOTTI – PITTI ITALICS
At 10:30 it will be time for Lucio Vanotti and his sober, deconstructed. We met him years ago, the day after the contest Who Is On Next ? in which he participated .
” We have eagerly Followed Lucio Vanotti ‘s development and the evolution of his decidedly contemporary, minimal , unisex sartorial collections” – noted Cianchi . “We are thrilled to lend him the Pitti Uomo stage and public to present his brand”
FLORENCE CALLING: RAF SIMONS
As said, it’s the most awaited event that in fact unofficially closes the kermesse.
In the evening of Thursday, June 16th, Pitti Immagine will present Florence Calling: Raf Simons, an event celebrating one of the greatest innovators in contemporary fashion and his return to Florence.
“Florence holds a special place in my heart – says Raf Simons – as, over the years, I have regularly come back to show my work or to collaborate on ventures that closely mirrored my thoughts about it. I am thrilled to be there again this season to present my S/S 2017 collection as well as a special project we are developing especially for Pitti”.
As for the unconventional music-addicts, the not-to-be-missed Alternative Set will tantalize our eardrums with several guests at the console day by day. The finest ones won’t certainly miss the press briefing sponsored by Cartier while the most mundane will choose the Icon & Ford Party and Xacus, L’Uomo Vogue and GQ Italia cocktail.
I suggest a look at the Diadora stand and that of our northern Europeans friends Norwegian Rain.
For the authentic Fucking Young! addicted, drop-in to the sections My Factory and TOUCH cannot be renounced…
See you there! ; )
