Every year, a trade show in Italy brings together all of the industry’s most talented designers and manufacturers. It isn’t a fashion week. It isn’t for the people who are looking to convince the consumers what is in style or in fashion. It is for the people at the beginning of the process to come together and see (and maybe even decide together) what will define the style for the next year. Pitti Uomo is one of, if not the, biggest and most influential trade shows of the year, and this year, the message is clear: The focus is on you. I know it sounds weird, because the focus should almost always be on the consumer. These are businesses at the end of the day, so selling to them and bringing in enough profit to continue on to next year is a simple goal. However, there is something that stood out to me throughout this year that Hockerty, one of my favorite attendees of Pitti Uomo every year, nails perfectly: simplicity allows you to shine.
Tradition leads the way
For the last year and a half to two years, the fashion industry has been digging up the past to bring old styles to the forefront. What was old is new again. Classic silhouettes and throwback styles tend to rise to the top, springing to the forefront and eclipsing the wild and crazy trends. Gone are the days of the ultra slim suit, the bright and flashy colors, and the wild patterns that seemed to define the last fifteen years of the fashion industry. In their place are the wider leg trousers, the looser drape of the jacket, and the classic details that made mid-century style so beloved.
Hockerty leaned into this with their 2026 Pitti Lookbook by featuring classic black formal wear and hats, along with the always classic and not always beloved if not done well, cumberbund. Seriously, anytime I have seen a cumberbund, I have immediately thought of my brother in his marching band uniform. However, when I went to a black-tie wedding a few months ago and a black-tie event in Monte Carlo a few weeks ago, I noticed the return of the cumberbund. It is stylish, traditional, and anyone can pull it off.
Colors begin to stand out
Here is the thing: traditional is often misinterpreted as old and stale. Bland and boring. Basic and unimaginative. Sure, it can be that way if you simply take the old-fashioned template and slap it on yourself for a night out. But here is the truth: Classic styles with flashes of trendy modernism are the key to reimagining an old style. Instead of the classic black tuxedo, Pitti Uomo and Hockerty showed us that the velvet dinner jacket is the way to dress it up. I saw burgundy, navy, and forest green. All with black accents and classic tailoring.
Take that one step further and adopt the double-breasted plaid, houndstooth, or pinstripe looks. These are the same looks our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers wore and made iconic. People like King Charles would wear them with dignity and grace. Today, we can too, but we’re adding one color in. Not a bright and over-the-top color combination that makes it more trendy than classic, but a single color outside of the blue, gray, brown, and black, that takes something old and makes it new again. This is the heart of what Pitti Uomo and Hockerty are about this year.
But why are we scaling back the bright fashion trends in the streets of Italy, where they originated? Italian flair is one of the trademarks of the fashion industry. What is the message this year at Pitti? You. The focus is on you.
Without the trends, your style is personal
One of the things men have a hard time with is finding themselves through style. We tend to take what guys we see as stylish are wearing and try to pull it off ourselves. We tend to look like we’re cosplaying someone more stylish than ourselves. We also go from mom to girlfriend to fiancée to wife, all of them dressing us the way they like, and we lose ourselves in our significant other’s style. We focus on fashion, what is on the outside, while we bury style, the true depth of who we are. So, how does that change with the style presented in the Italian trade show? How does Hockerty lead the way with this?
As long as you aren’t hiding behind loud trends and you adopt the more subtle styles, you are free to showcase who you are. The message of Pitti Uomo this season seems to be creating blank slates for you to then make your own. Forget fashion, focus on style. Fashion is what you wear, and style is how you wear it, as I always say. Hockerty continued their yearly win of Pitti Uomo in 2026, and they make it easy for you to recreate it with a fully customizable process to create your own unique look.
Until next year’s Pitti, take your blank slate and find yourself with a freedom to explore.
