Marni Men returns to the catwalk with Pitti Uomo

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Oct 28, 2014

Pitti Uomo has chosen two uncharacteristic and far from classic menswear brands as its guests of honour for the next menswear fashion fair scheduled for 13-16 January, 2015 in Florence, with Marni Men under the creative leadership of Consuelo Castiglioni as one, and Hood By Air as the other.

For the Marni ready-to-wear brand, detained by Renzo Rosso's OTB group (Diesel), which is celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, it will be the opportunity to celebrate the grand return of its men's line to the runway after being absent for several years, preferring unusual presentations from season to season instead. It will take to the catwalk with the fall/winter 2015/16 collection.

Launched in 2006, Marni Men, which only represents 3% of sales compared to the women's line, is far from having expressed all of its potential. It launched into an ambitious development strategy last year by, in particular, entrusting its global distribution to Tomorrow London Limited. With this runway show at Pitti Uomo, Marni Men is accelerating its relaunch on a global scale.

"I am very happy that Consuelo Castiglioni accepted our invitation to present the first show in the new phase of the Marni Men's collection," stated with pleasure Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine.

"It is a name that counts among the undisputed key players in international fashion and whose creativity, elegance and nonconformism we have always admired, traits that have always characterised its style. It is a house that is of course attentive to the market without giving into it," he continued.

The other special guest at the trade event will be the New York brand created in 2007 by Shayne Oliver: Hood By Air (HBA), known for its experimental and radical approach. The label, reaping success from the luxury street trend borrowing as much from the sports world as the music and nightclubbing scene, will offer a special event on the occasion of Pitti Uomo.

"As of their first event that I attended two years ago, I was immediately struck by the creative process developed by the HBA team and by the unique way of making every collection, in addition to very carefully styled, a strong message regarding genre, social class, power and beauty," said Lapo Cianchi, Pitti Immagine director of communication and events, in a press release.

Also on the programme for this 87th edition of Pitti Uomo, Cloakroom, mandatory cloakroom, the performance created by Olivier Saillard, director of Palais Galliera, the Paris museum of fashion and fashion history, with actress and style icon Tilda Swinton.