Is Fashion Stuck in the Archives?

FLORENCE — Pitti Uomo increasingly feels like it’s stuck in a timewarp, from the poseurs in classic Italian style roaming the Fortezza da Basso to the offer in the stands: tailoring, shirting and sportswear that’s faultless but dull. To be sure, a trade fair is by definition focused on product, and at Pitti the level is high, with little gems to discover like DeNobiliaryParticle’s knitwear classics and Bonastre’s malleable yet architectural bags.

To some extent, what we saw in Florence is a reflection of the malaise affecting the system at large: fatigue and a certain soullessness. If the antidote is “authenticity,” that often drives fashion to lean on the past. But there was a nostalgia that seemed both backward looking and progressive in the air this week, notably from a new breed of designers coming mostly from Asia whose influences range from early 00s Raf Simons to Jun Takahashi, Rick Owens to Takahiro Miyashita in his Number (N)ine heyday.

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In some cases, the results achieved new heights, while in others the translation remained a bit literal. The latter was the case at Children of the Discordance, the brainchild of obsessive archivist Hideaki Shikama. The Japanese up and coming brand staged their Enfant Terrible show in the cavernous industrial space of Stazione Leopolda, to lots of dust and dim lights. The dark, layered, moody looks came straight from Simons and Miyashita, but Shikama was wise enough to make things a bit more sensual and dangerous, with a dash of Americana, and hints of Dsquared2. What struck me was how projects like these are designed to ignite cult-like followings right from the start, putting building a community before the design process.

The mood was somehow similar at Code Korea, a stimulating showcase of some of the country’s most promising, prominent or just plain arty labels. The gloomy Ajobajo stood out, together with Man.g Stu:dio’s high-impact streetwear and Ordinary People’s refashioning of old shirts into progressive menswear. In all cases, the above influences were evident, but translated into oversized easy volumes that felt somehow fresh, even though rebellion was turned into a pose or aesthetic code.

As the world swings right politically, the aesthetic of rebellion is also on the rise. Otherwise, it’s inventive takes on functionalism, such as the experimental knitwear capsule that Luca D’Alena, a talent worth keeping an eye on, created for Consinee, the Chinese purveyors of high-end cashmere fibers. (Full disclosure: D’Alena was selected for Consinee by this writer). The series of modular garments they presented, with a performance charged with both tenderness and eroticism, offered ways to create both graphic silhouettes and solutions for a range of weather.

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At Post Archive Faction, Dongjoon Lim’s goal, as embedded in the label’s name, is to create collectibles worthy of future archives. What makes the label special is a kind of urban pragmatism that’s not predictably translated into streetwear. This being Pitti, Lim went in a sartorial direction, with towelling suits a standout. With its gloomy layering and sense of post-apocalyptic doom, the collection and show came out as an odd mix of Yohji Yamamoto without the masterful cutting and Raf Simons without the subcultural twist. There is potential, for sure, but also lots of work to be done to attain that archive-worthy desirability.

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All eyes were on Niccolò Pasqualetti’s menswear debut. The 2024 LVMH Prize finalist’s architecturally decorative, gender-bending, fluid and doll-like aesthetic have made him a media darling. And though men’s looks have always been featured in his shows, this was the first time they took the lead. Pasqualetti chose the concrete labyrinth on the rooftop of Teatro del Maggio Fiorentino — in glaring sunlight and scorching heat — for his presentation, but despite the magic of the setting, and the serenity of the show, the results were not that convincing.

Pasqualetti hails from a world of geometric shapes, mild sensuality and soft masculinity: a mind-expanding headspace, on paper. In reality, the clothes felt naive, not in a poetic kind of way, rather in a graduate fashion show kind of way. One could feel a disconnect between the proposed aesthetic and the bodies wearing them, a certain monotony, and in general a lack of maturity. At the beginning of his career, Pasqualetti benefited from the exacting point of view of veteran stylist Samuel Drira. That kind of editing is now missing, and it shows. Even the best authors need an editor, after all, and Pasqualetti has still to prove he is one.

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Finally, the gentlemen in bright colours that flood the Fortezza Da Basso made a fey and abstract, if unlikely comeback on the catwalk at Issey Miyake’s Homme Plissé show, where the magnificent transversality and everydayness of the collection collided with the monumentality of the garden of Villa Medicea la Petraia, and somehow vanished amid the luxuriant greenery and poetic rainbows. The presentation, consisting of an exhibition as well as a show, was the debut of the label’s new “open studio” strategy, and while the exhibition was convincing, the show less so.

The styling, casting and general flow of the proceedings worked against everything that makes Homme Plissé so special and so successful. The homage to the colours of Italy felt a bit scholastic for a start, while the models offered a very narrow array of body possibilities compared to what Homme Plissé actually covers. As a result, the label felt slightly stripped of its progressive possibilities. If the intention of the “open studio” concept is to get closer to the public, the format may need some fine-tuning to really shine.