Opening the week of Pitti Uomo 110, the Polimoda Graduate Show 2026 celebrated the school’s 40th anniversary with a showcase of more than 100 looks from 20 emerging designers representing 15 nationalities. Staged against the iconic clock tower of Polimoda’s Manifattura Campus in Florence, the show marked the culmination of four years of study, with each collection translating personal heritage, memory, and identity into industry-ready fashion. Guided by a faculty that includes creative mentors Luke and Lucie Meier, the designers presented their mini collections reflecting a generation shaped by rapid change and using fashion as a means to interpret, question, and make sense of the world around them.
Menswear Highlights:
Aaron Dillworth (USA / Jamaica) | SUN IS HIGH SO AM I | @aarondillworth
SUN IS HIGH SO AM I by Aaron Dillworth is rooted in the warmth of two places: Miami, where he grew up, and Jamaica, where his mother was born and raised. The collection is designed entirely with the tropical climate in mind, clothes that breathe, move, and feel good against the body. Lightweight fabrics, meshes, and loose or oversized silhouettes prioritise comfort and ease, with material quality taking precedence over colour. The result is a wardrobe shaped by lived experience, cultural heritage, and the particular freedom that comes with heat and open air. SUN IS HIGH SO AM I is unhurried and instinctive, clothing that carries the feeling of a place as much as its aesthetic.
Emily Horton (USA) | Jew…ish | @emilyyalta
Jew…ish by Emily Horton draws from the experience of growing up Jewish in America, navigating inherited religion, cultural identity, and the desire to belong. The collection finds its resolution on the baseball field, where a shared and immediate passion creates community that transcends personal and cultural difference. Silhouettes and a colour palette rooted in baseball uniforms and athletic gear are balanced with draped shapes and stripes derived from Jewish cultural garments, merging the aesthetics of the sports field with historical heritage. Cotton fabrics reference the pre-synthetic era of the game, grounding the collection in tradition, while heavy wool and canvas provide the structural integrity needed to hold its specific forms. Jew…ish is a collection about the tension between difference and belonging, and the unexpected places where that tension quietly dissolves.
Isabella “Zaz” Alvarino (USA) | Hot Nerds | @zalvarino
Hot Nerds by Isabella “Zaz” Alvarino is a collection dedicated to her late friend Jay, a person who, growing up queer in rural Texas, chose to embrace who he was with fearless curiosity. That spirit of freedom became the emotional foundation of the work. Rooted in tailoring, the collection traces back to a blazer Isabella altered from her father’s old suits: the tension between the original masculine shoulder and a dramatically cinched waist, between what is inherited and what is reshaped, became both its defining silhouette and central metaphor. References move fluidly between Alessandro Michele’s romantic eclecticism, Miuccia Prada’s combination of intelligence with emotional freedom, and the liberation of 1960s and 70s glamour. Materials reflect the idea of moulting, shedding an outer layer in order to grow, with suiting fabrics combined with unexpected textures to mirror a transformation that is uneven, ongoing, and deeply personal. Jay is a collection about freedom, friendship, queerness, and the idea of allowing yourself to fully become who you are.
Jakob Nittmann (Austria) | Unlearning Neutral | @jakobnittmann
Unlearning Neutral by Jakob Nittmann begins with a provocation: colour was not always absent from menswear. In 18th century aristocratic dress, colour was natural, learned, and intentional, a conscious expression of status and personality. Its disappearance, Jakob argues, came not from rejection but from insecurity, as the rise of the middle class brought conformity and the knowledge of colour was gradually lost. The collection sets out to reclaim that courage. Patterns and silhouettes from 18th century menswear coats are translated into contemporary forms, bombers, trench coats, skiing jackets, while embroidery, prints, and accessories carry the same historical spirit into the present. Technical, modern fabrics provide a deliberate contrast to the richness of the references, grounding the collection firmly in today. Inspired by interior design and gardens, the palette is joyful and considered. Unlearning Neutral is an invitation for men to make themselves visible again, and to remember that dressing with joy is not frivolous, but radical.
Jing Jirat Jitdee (Thailand) | Cool Back Home | @jing.jitd
Cool Back Home by Jirat Jitdee follows a group of unruly young men from the Thai countryside who arrive in Bangkok chasing dreams, dressed in a boldly outdated vision of cool shaped by the pop culture of their youth. Loud, confident, and proudly stuck in another era, they stand out in the city without apology. With humor and irony, the collection celebrates their self-belief and carefree attitude, reinterpreting familiar menswear silhouettes through shifting proportions, construction, and context. References range from traditional Thai sarongs to early 2000s Helmut Lang and Carol Christian Poell, while the colour palette draws from the traditional Thai day-of-the-week colours, paired with faded graphics and vintage details. Lightweight cottons, linens, silks, and viscose bring a summery Bangkok warmth to each piece. Cool Back Home is menswear that feels both deeply recognizable and unexpectedly fresh.
Lisa Criaco (Belgium) | The Pressure | @lisacriaco
The Pressure by Lisa Criaco draws from grief and personal transformation, channelling loss through the metaphor of deep-sea diving, a reference to her late father, who was a diver. The ocean becomes a space of descent, pressure, and introspection, while tailoring enters as its counterforce: structure, precision, and discipline as a search for order in the aftermath of emotional upheaval. Silhouettes draw from classic diving suits, with metal buttons echoing traditional diving helmets, waterproof zippers, and deliberately placed seams reinforcing the underwater narrative. A predominantly dark palette evokes weight and hardship, punctuated by moments of colour and a single white look that introduce clarity and renewal. Rubber, inflatable materials, and technical fabrics are combined with natural fibres, creating a dialogue between innovation and the organic. The Pressure is a collection about navigating the depths and the long, careful work of resurfacing.
Matilde Terranova (Italy) | Teenager Boys | @mati_tt
Teenager Boys by Matilde Terranuova begins in slow, empty places where nothing happens and follows a group of teenagers who turn the outlaw into a language. What starts as imitation and play gradually becomes a precise construction of identity, as the city arrives and being seen becomes necessary. Inspired by the visual tribal language of Walter Hill’s The Warriors (1979), the collection reinterprets urban nocturnal imagery through a contemporary and introspective lens, especially in the way the film transforms a gang into a visual language and a symbol of belonging. Hybrid garments, bombers fused with trench coats, denim merged with tailoring, create slim, elongated, nervous silhouettes suspended between rebellion and elegance. A palette of charcoal black, washed military green, dirty beige, and dusty grey appears worn and almost oxidized, while washed denim, dry wool, worn leather, and technical nylon merge workwear, streetwear, and sartorial construction into a single new identity. Teenager Boys is about the moment a role becomes the only possible way to exist.
Matteo Bardi (Italy) | VULNERA | @matteo_bardi
VULNERA by Matteo Bardi examines the contradictions and tensions within the queer community through a dialogue between two opposing archetypes: the hardened biker and the delicate boy he derides. Drawing on the visual world of motorcycles and biker culture, the collection confronts the policing of softness and femininity within queer spaces, reclaiming vulnerability as a form of power. Emotional honesty becomes a radical and defiant act, an assertion that tenderness is not weakness, but resistance. Rooted in personal truth and a deep connection to his own origins, VULNERA is a collection that refuses to harden itself, finding its strength in softness and vulnerability.
Victor Brial (Réunion, France) | Souvenirs of Wondering | @vicbrial
Souvenirs of Wandering by Victor Brial follows a young man overwhelmed by the noise of modern life who chooses to disconnect, embarking on a journey that leads him to Réunion Island. Rather than documenting his travels through a screen, he collects objects and textures, allowing his experiences to reshape both his environment and the way he dresses. The collection contrasts travel memories with a contemporary wardrobe, blending organic richness with nonchalant, modern confidence. Oversized and rounded silhouettes draw from the sculptural language of Henry Moore, while the colour palette takes cues from Réunion’s lush nature, toned into deeper, darker shades evoking volcanic landscapes and humid mountains for a Fall-Winter sensibility. Through carefully chosen materials that feel instinctive and tactile, Souvenirs of Wandering is ultimately a meditation on how movement through the world quietly builds the self.
