Pitti Immagine Uomo No. 109 officially kicks off the fashion season with a reunion of brands, shows, creatives and enthusiasts that comprehend and embody the high quality, the concepts and the commitment this industry is always in need of. Hed Mayner is a representative of this wave of design, where the thought behind the pieces speaks for itself and where, without loud noise surrounding the designs, a big impact can be made. As one of the two guest designers of this season and with a proposal where the key word “motion” is taken as a transformative route for traditional garments to go beyond the norm, the Florence runways welcome the lightness and the heaviness of a solid and different proposal.
Pitti is known as the most important menswear fair and tradeshow in the world. It is also often the first fashion event of the year and signifies a refined and well-constructed start to the trends, garments and silhouettes that we will see being transformed and deconstructed as the year goes by. The Florence-based event often hosts proposals that rest more on the traditional side, the impeccable menswear sartorial that is the definition of elegance, savoir faire and “everything being in its right place”. Among the busy agenda, guest designers are always one of the key points of the event, bringing new perspectives and a sense of disruption to the polished aesthetics.
Disruption does not translate into ripped clothes, holes everywhere or pieces destroyed and turned into something new. Disruption can be a slightly altered proportion, a seam placed lower than usual or a silhouette bigger than normal. The constant in fashion is the body; it's always there not only to use the garments but to hold them together and let them fall and take the shape that they wish, and Hed Mayner took this as an advantage to present both the body and the clothes in his own way. The Paris-based designer worked in Tuscany for a long time in the past, and his return to Florence was a chance to bring back to Italy that understanding of construction that has made him world-renowned.
“The wrongness of it all is perfect” is a quote extracted from the press release of this collection, and it seems the best way to describe the way each look feels. There are fabrics normally used for a specific type of garment appearing somewhere else, like a plaid flannel not in a shirt but in a dress; there are elements in certain pieces that used to belong to other typologies of garments, like a shawl tuxedo lapel in a rigid trench coat; and there are combinations of materials that should clash, but they actually don't so much, like a fur collar, foily silver pants, a turtleneck sweater and a chain necklace. All this was done with the intention of creating something different from what's already there, from what we are already used to seeing enough times, so when it's presented differently, we notice it, but not with rejection, but with the acknowledgement of "Ah, this could be done differently," and it still works.
All the changes are subtle, even if the pieces themselves possess a strong character, and the high quality and the attention to detail that are staples of the brand and of the event where the show is being presented shine through and through, with the tailoring being perfectly done to not fit the body too tightly but to create structure around it. An example of this is how the shoulder line is always at play, whether it is slightly displaced out of the body, slouching and falling over it or completely absent in the seam but present in the curvy balloon result of a raglan sleeve, but all perfectly calculated.
With this collection, Hed Mayner talks about the freedom of looking different, and with the passing of time, we have come to learn how looking different becomes more and more one of the bigger compliments one could ever receive and a quality worth striving for.
