Twice a year, a swath of well-dressed, seemingly self-possessed people gather for Pitti Uomo, a menswear trade show in Florence, Italy, to discuss what it’s like to not emotionally spiral while getting dressed (I imagine). As a distant internet spectator of this biannual gathering, I tend to close out the week knowing more about what people wore to it than what was actually shown. Take a singular lap around this slideshow and you’ll know why:
As Harling pointed out last June, Pitti Uomo offers up some of the best street style on the fashion calendar menu. The outfits are crispy, fulfilling, and good for the health! Like a bowl of sweet potato fries you delude yourself into calling a salad (just kidding it is a salad). Below I’ve unpacked seven key takeaways from this year’s offerings, including but not limited to how to embody a stick of butter. Meet you at the bottom for dessert in the form of you telling me you agree.
1. Be the Bed
Boy do I have a lot to learn from this bed, I mean woman. Are you seeing this quilted dress? This duvet coat? The way they come together in nap-like harmony? Why the hell am I not wearing this right now? I could change the world and then go to bed in this outfit! I think I love her.
2. MORE UTILITY KHAKI
Hello nice to meet you I wish I was in this photo. Look at these belt-forward outfits. Look at all this utility-wear that’s not being utilized. I’m so inspired. I need more khaki! I might even need more useless chains!* I definitely need Apple Airpods to wear purely for aesthetic reasons!
*maybe
3. A Suit With…Wait for It…a Tie
Everyone and their cool aunt is wearing a suit these days, but are enough of these relatives adding literal ties? Why didn’t I think of it? Diane Keaton would have never made this mistake.
4. Big. Ass. Coats.
I can’t stress enough how much I want a coat that is two sizes larger than a size guide would suggest I wear. Why the hell am I wearing coats that fit me? Look at these people! Look at their collars. I would follow them to a second location faster than they could say “fifth wheel.”
5. Be the Stick of Butter You Want to See in the World
Harling and I both showed up to work the other day wearing white jeans and cream sweaters and she aptly referred to us as sticks of butter. In the days since, people have been tagging us on Instagram in their own butter outfits and I’m becoming increasingly convinced that butter-dressing is the secret to escaping winter outfit ruts. I especially appreciate how this butter outfit features a pimento accent.
6. A Statement Coat Is an Outfit
This woman is one of my closest friends, hypothetically, and I say that to cope with the fact that I’ll never get to ask her where she found this coat or how she managed to look so crisp in it. May we all find outerwear that pairs so memorably with plaid trousers, a burnt orange sweater and black loafers.
7. Just Belt a Blanket
You know what? This might be the most genius winter hack of all. Steps include:
1. Laying on the couch under a blanket binge-watching This Is Us.
2. Considering what it would entail to leave the house in order to keep a commitment that involves 15-degree weather.
3. Pausing This Is Us. Standing up with blanket still wrapped around your shoulders.
4. Belting it.
5. Exiting your home and thriving.
Photos by Matthew Sperzel.
