PITTI UOMO IN FLORENCE
The small, tan taxi hurtled down a Florentine side street too narrow for baton twirling. My driver sliced over the Arno River on one of the city’s short stone bridges, arriving quickly below the Fortezza da Basso – a 14th century fortress spliced into the former city walls and now looming over the opposite bank like a hibernating bear blocking the road.
Above the tall Gothic arch at the entrance, a large Italian flag pirouetted in the winter breeze. An oversized, white-faced clock within said PITTI in black letters. This was Pitti Uomo, the semiannual fashion trade show that is almost as much theater as it is business.
Menswear brands, both famous and emerging, take booths in spreading pavilions or in freestanding glass houses in the courtyard. They serve espresso, Prosecco and treats, and otherwise work to lure buyers from retailers around the world. The keynote is luxury, but variety is the byword, with booths selling everything from new trends in athleisure to masterwork examples of the not-yet-dead necktie and business suit. As a German myself, I was proud of the Neudeutsch (New German) “special project”: a pavilion in which noteworthy young German brands were given the chance to showcase themselves.
The theatrical bit comes from the fact that Pitti Uomo is perhaps the largest gathering of the world’s bestdressed men. In an age when a man can feel he has overdone it with a collared shirt and new sneakers, here was a small city (of 20,000 attendees) populated with men in handmade suits, bicolored leather shoes and long, regal overcoats. Many are elegant, some are downright flamboyant, but all are consciously aware that they are there as