Pitti Uomo looks back on 30 years of men's fashion with new exhibition

Pitti Uomo is looking back on its 30 years in the menswear industry with a new exhibition.

The upcoming edition of the Italian trade show will feature the headline show ‘Romanzo Breve di Moda Maschile -- A Short Novel on Men's Fashion.' Presented by the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery, the retrospective will run June 11-14, and will focus on the past three decades of menswear, as seen through the lense of all the Pitti Uomo shows that have taken place since 1989.

The exhibition will showcase clothes presented at Pitti Uomo over the past 30 years, featuring a total of 150 brands such as Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Vans, Roberto Cavalli and Gosha Rubchinskiy, to name just a few. The show will highlight fashion collections synonymous with major turning points at the fair, and the entire exhibition will be consolidated into a permanent menswear collection dubbed the ‘Men's Fashion Collection of the Fondazione Discovery', which will be donated to the Museo della Moda e del Costume of Palazzo Pitti.

"Pitti Uomo is to menswear as Cannes and Venice are to cinema," said the exhibition's creator and curator Olivier Saillard in a statement. "Many of the men, but also the women, who transformed men's clothing into creative works have passed through Florence."

A book/catalog is also being published celebrate Pitti Immagine's milestone birthday, featuring pieces by Angelo Flaccavento, Frédéric Martin-Bernard, Suzy Menkes, and Olivier Saillard.

The upcoming Pitti Uomo showcase will feature the house of Givenchy as its special guest, it was revealed earlier this month, with the label's artistic director Clare Waight Keller set to stage her first standalone menswear show on June 12 during the event in Florence.