A behind-the-scenes history of Pitti Uomo and the creative development of men’s fashion over the past 40 years

Since the 1980s, men’s fashion has left behind the staid predictability of earlier years and undergone a fundamental mutation. Men are now acknowledged to have the same desires as women in deriving pleasure from appearance and ornament. The time when a wife would choose her husband’s clothes for him is long over. Fashion marketed to men, presented at Fashion Week shows and distributed in specialized stores, has gotten more and more exciting, and men’s fashion has accordingly enjoyed a growing critical recognition of its creative nature.

Since 1972 Pitti Uomo, the trade show for men’s fashion held twice a year in Florence, has been the principal protagonist of these developments. Registering minimal variations in trends as well as great changes, Pitti Uomo has become the most influential show of menswear and continues to attract the most creative designers.

A Short Novel on Men’s Fashion uses Pitti Uomo as the lens through which to consider the exhilarating recent progress of men’s fashion. Bringing together personal perspectives by journalists and key figures on how menswear has changed over the last 40 years, alongside illustrations of designs by brands such as Armani, Fred Perry, Church’s, Marni, Aspesi and Brunello Cuccinelli, A Short Novel on Men’s Fashion offers an engaging insider history of recent developments in menswear.