Paul Andrew, the newly mounted innovative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, got here out swinging. “Men’s style nowadays, I assume it’s in a surely atrocious kingdom, pretty frankly,” he stated. “You move into any so-referred to as luxurious house, and menswear is predominantly about hoodies, sweatpants, tank tops, and T-shirts with logos all over them. There’s no difference between that and what the high-road brands are doing. I don’t find that luxurious.” Shots fired.
We have been within the Florence Chamber of Commerce constructing, which turned into mercifully air-conditioned—out-of-doors, oppressive Tuscan humidity had descended upon the whole day of Pitti Uomo. But the warmth, because it has been, became on: It becomes approximately seven hours from Andrew’s first menswear show as innovative director, and he becomes deliberating model Kiki Willems as she walks throughout the marble ground in a couple of white cutout ankle boots and an identical embroidered lace get dressed. (Andrew, who turned promoted from head of women’s geared up-to-wear and shoes six months ago, couldn’t withstand sprinkling some women’s seems into the display.) His imaginative and prescient of what real luxury is is beginning right here.
Andrew didn’t say who these “luxurious” competitors are. Still, it’s clear who he’s talking about: the Guccis and Balenciaga of the world, whose sales have skyrocketed under designers who haven’t been afraid to pour jet fuel on their respective homes’ codes—which means, yes, they have designed some closely branded hoodies. “My approach to men’s fashion is extraordinary,” Andrew stated, gesturing on the version board, wherein there’s now not a couple of jeans or sweats to be located in many of The Talented Mr. Ripley-esque palettes. There’s a T-shirt—and it’s made of Napa leather. The faces on the board skew older than we’ve expected, too, Willems notwithstanding. Legendary art director Peter Saville (he of Joy Division’s cover art and worldwide fashion houses’ new logos) became set for his runway debut, as was Michi Berger-Sandhofer, a deputy chairman at Sotheby’s and a buddy of Andrew’s.
Andrew’s mandate as an innovative director isn’t simply to modernize the prevailing Ferragamo client—it’s to bring in a new technology. You know, the one that’s copping hoodies like there’s a cotton scarcity. But communication is talk. So later that night, within the Piazza Della Signoria (you realize, the square in Florence), Andrew virtually got here out swinging: The establishing appearance featured that Napa tee with a creamy pair of workwear-inspired belted cargo pants in a tailoring wool-cotton material. “Once you’ve worn the ones form of sport-stimulated clothes, it’s tough to go lower back to tailored, geared up garments, and I do not always see that coming returned robustly,” Andrew had cited before the display (while wearing, I can also upload, beat-up black Carhartts).
Workwear, he says, is a way to attain that younger era—a strategy that felt even more promising when the one’s pants emerged on the runway. They looked nice so that it would more than justify the unavoidably high charge tag—and, more importantly, with a handy slouch, they appeared relaxed. It’s now not workwear. However, it’s not what you think of when you assume “Ferragamo trousers,” either. Plus, the version was considered one of a chain of shades paying homage to Oakley blades. The setting was a nod to Ferragamo’s Florentine history (it’s miles the first time—and final, apparently—an emblem has maintained a display in the Piazza Della Signoria). Still, the sun shades have been a sign that Andrew is asking ahead.
They changed into a tanned leather vest; this is all but destined for Dev Hynes’s cloth wardrobe and a series of tight, quick-sleeve ribbed knits you could consider seeing on a skater with a modeling settlement. Speaking of which, It-guy Evan Mock (the red-haired skater and version) sat in the front row after Ferragamo fan Cole Sprouse, carrying the brand new Ferragamo knit tank. The ones men will sporting these garments is already a small victory. In the beyond, Ferragamo’s menswear runway didn’t generally tend to make it to production. Another part of Andrew’s mandate, he says, is to “carry that fashion into the stores, so that a greater style-ahead customer can come in and in reality discover matters” that they see on the runway, in magazines, and on licensed excellent youngsters like Mock.
