Pitti Uomo 109 & Milan Fashion Week Men’s FW26: Key trends, designers and Olympic style
Italy’s January menswear weeks unite emerging fashion, AW26–27 trends and Olympic culture across Pitti Uomo and Milan Fashion Week
As the countdown begins, Italy’s menswear calendar heats up with Pitti Uomo 109 in Florence and Milan Fashion Week Men’s Fall/Winter 2026–27, promising a dynamic blend of international designers, emerging talent and innovative fashion formats this season. From 13 to 16 January, Pitti Uomo 109 will present over 700 brands—including global icons and rising stars—under the theme Motion, signalling a focus on movement, cultural dialogue and shifting markets. Just days later, from 16 to 20 January, Milan Fashion Week Men’s will return with a curated schedule of 18 runway shows, 36 presentations and immersive city-wide experiences, highlighting how menswear is evolving amid a global luxury recalibration.
This January, Italy aims not just to present collections, but to position menswear as a global conversation. Guest designers at Pitti include Israeli-born, Paris-based Hed Mayner, alongside Japanese talents Soshi Otsuki and Shinyakozuka. In Milan, established icons such as Prada and Giorgio Armani will headline, joined by carefully selected runway debuts—most notably Ralph Lauren—and the highly anticipated returns of Zegna and Dsquared2. The season also intersects with culture and sport: Milan Fashion Week Men’s FW 26–27 takes place in the lead-up to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, featuring curated activations that merge performance and fashion.
Pitti 109 and Milan Fashion Week Men’s FW26 are set to converge luxury, Made in Italy craftsmanship, experimental menswear, Olympic heritage and city-wide cultural events, making Florence and Milan the epicentres of winter menswear 2026. From niche perfumery and tailored innovation to alpine-inspired experiences and avant-garde runway shows, the Italian menswear scene is expected to define the key trends for Autumn/Winter 2026–27. Let’s discover how.
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Pitti Uomo 109 January 2026 in Florence: Full Menswear Preview, HiBeauty and Designers to Watch
With just days to go, Pitti Uomo 109 returns to Florence from 13 to 16 January 2026, reaffirming its role as a premier global platform for menswear amid ongoing industry transformation. Hosted at the Fortezza da Basso, the fair will showcase the Autumn/Winter 2026–27 collections from over 700 brands, 44 per cent of which hail from outside Italy, under the theme Motion.
Reflecting on movement—physical, cultural and economic—the theme underscores Pitti Uomo’s ambition to remain a central hub in an increasingly international fashion ecosystem. Here, meaningful business opportunities arise as the demands of buyers and media intersect with the diverse offerings of brands and manufacturers.
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Among the most notable developments this season is the launch of HiBeauty, a newly curated area devoted to niche perfumery and experimental beauty. Marking Pitti Uomo’s strategic expansion beyond fashion into adjacent lifestyle categories, HiBeauty builds on the experience of Fragranze—Pitti Immagine’s long-running event for artistic perfumery—and will be integrated into the Futuro Maschile section.
This edition will be structured around five exhibition categories: Fantastic Classic, Futuro Maschile, Dynamic Attitude, Superstyling, and I Go Out.
Guest designers are also generating excitement, with industry insiders anticipating the arrival of Hed Mayner, a mainstay of Paris Fashion Week menswear, alongside Japanese talents Soshi Otsuki—winner of the 2025 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers—and Shinyakozuka, the Tokyo-based designer known for his distinctive, often hand-painted silhouettes. Shinyakozuka will present his work in collaboration with Japan Fashion Week.
Hed Mayner at Pitti Uomo 109: A Paris-Based Tailoring Vision Redefining Menswear
Hed Mayner headlines this edition’s guest designers, staging a runway show in Florence that is set to bring his quietly radical approach to tailoring into sharp focus.
Based in Paris, the Israeli-born designer has built a distinctive language around the body, using volume, proportion and fabric weight to challenge conventional ideas of fit, gender and formality. Trained at the Institut Français de la Mode, Mayner launched his namesake brand after early hands-on work with leather and artisanal techniques, grounding his conceptual vision in technical rigour.
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His collections—crafted in Italy and carried by retailers such as Dover Street Market and Galeries Lafayette—are defined by an architectural sensibility that balances discipline and ease, structure and fluidity.
Since winning the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Awards in 2019, Hed Mayner has steadily consolidated his position as one of the most intellectually compelling voices in contemporary menswear.
Soshi Otsuki Debuts in Florence: Japanese Heritage Meets Modern European Menswear
Also taking centre stage at Pitti Uomo 109 is Soshi Otsuki, founder of the Tokyo-based label Soshiotsuki and winner of the 2025 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. For his Florence debut, Otsuki will present a special runway project that embodies his ongoing dialogue between Japanese cultural heritage and European sartorial codes.
A graduate of Bunka Fashion College and Coconogacco, the designer draws on traditional Japanese performance arts and the influence of Italian fashion on Japan during the economic boom of the 1980s. The result is a precise, modern menswear language that privileges clarity, craftsmanship and wearability without lapsing into nostalgia.
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Since launching his brand a decade ago, Soshi Otsuki has garnered critical recognition in Japan and internationally, positioning Soshiotsuki as a label that translates cultural memory into a contemporary, commercially attuned proposition—one that finds a fitting stage in Florence.
Milan Fashion Week Men’s FW 26–27 January 2026: Runways, Presentations and City Experiences
From 16 to 20 January 2026, Milano Fashion Week Men’s Fall/Winter 2026–27 returns with a tightly curated schedule, reflecting the ongoing streamlining of the global menswear calendar. According to figures from Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, the week will feature 76 appointments, including 18 runway shows—seven digital—alongside 36 presentations, three by-appointment formats and 12 events.
While the reduced number of runway shows reflects the pressures facing the global luxury sector—and Italian fashion in particular—the overall structure affirms Milan’s resolve to remain among the Big Four. The city continues to assert its relevance with a more diversified fashion week model, where traditional runway presentations coexist with alternative formats and city-wide activations—a strategy reinforced as Milan prepares to host the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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Milan Men’s Fashion Week Runways January 2026: Key Luxury Menswear Debuts and Comebacks
The Milano Fashion Week Men’s Fall/Winter 2026–27 runway calendar is anchored by established luxury names, with Prada, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Paul Smith once again confirming their presence. The season also welcomes back Zegna, under the creative direction of Alessandro Sartori, and Dsquared2, led by Dean and Dan Caten, reinforcing the enduring influence of Italy’s major meanswear houses.
Notably, three runway debuts energise the official schedule: Ralph Lauren, making its Milan Fashion Week Men’s debut, joined by Domenico Orefice and Victor Hart—both contributing new, tailoring-driven propositions to the city’s menswear offering.
Despite these new additions, the overall number of runway shows remains lower than in previous seasons. Gucci will postpone Demna’s official runway debut until February, following a series of digital launches and a teaser show staged at Piazza Affari last September. Meanwhile, Fendi is in transition, with its next menswear chapter to be unveiled during women’s fashion month, when the first runway collections by Maria Grazia Chiuri, recently appointed chief creative officer of the LVMH-owned house, are expected to debut.
Milan Fashion Week Men’s Presentations: Stone Island, Ferragamo, Etro and Experiential Formats
Presentations continue to account for a significant share of Milano Fashion Week Men’s Fall/Winter 2026–27, with brands like Stone Island, Ferragamo, Etro, Brunello Cucinelli, Brioni, Tod’s and Canali opting for formats that prioritise product focus and brand positioning over spectacle.
Stone Island, for example, will unveil Prototype Research_Series 09 in collaboration with Ken-Tonio Yamamoto—an installation exploring experimental research beyond industrial production. The week will also celebrate several brand milestones, including Blauer’s 25th anniversary, Pronounce’s 10th anniversary and Marcello Pipitone–Bonola’s five-year mark, underscoring the diversity shaping Milan’s menswear landscape.
Milan Fashion Week Meets Milano Cortina 2026: Alpine Culture and Sport-Focused Events
As Milan Fashion Week Men’s Fall/Winter 2026–27 unfolds against the backdrop of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, spotlighting the intersection of sport, heritage and fashion. The week’s official campaign draws directly from the Olympic Museum’s collection, featuring objects that span different eras and technologies but share a common spirit: a ski helmet from the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, a set of ski jumping skis from Albertville 1992, an 1980s snowboard and a pair of alpine ski poles. These artefacts underscore the Games’ enduring influence on design, performance and visual culture, signalling Milan’s ambition to position itself as a creative nexus where fashion and sport converge.
Several events during the week will explicitly celebrate this connection. EA7 Emporio Armani will honour the upcoming Winter Games with an in-store activation, offering a curated experience that pays tribute to Olympic and Paralympic spirit.
Meanwhile, K-WAY, in partnership with Vogue and GQ, will present “Montagna Milano: The Alpine Club in Town,” a three-day lineup of panels, workshops and après-ski experiences designed to bring alpine culture into the city. Unlike many fashion week events, this initiative is open to the public, reflecting a broader trend towards immersive, community-focused activations that extend the impact of Milan’s menswear week beyond the traditional runways and showrooms.
Agnese Pasquinelli
Editor, Milano