Wouldn’t it be a Pitti

It’s that season again. Pitti Uomo. Flocks of sport-coated men descend on Florence for a festival of all things sartorial and the results are broadcast in real-time to those of us sitting in less glamorous environs. So from the internet to my brain and back out to the internet, here are my thoughts on Pitti Winter 2012.

There are two things at the center of Pitti Uomo – the people and the clothes. I’ve got something to say about each.

Some advice for the attendees: It’s a trade show, not a costume drama guys. Come on. The all-matching-technicolor-everything, the quadruple flipped collars, and the good old “I’m going to just wear all my favorite (read: expensive and flashy) things at once” play that five-year-olds tend to employ are all bad ideas. They’re a bad idea on a Monday, they’re a bad idea on a night out, and they’re a bad idea at Pitti. Sure a photographer will take your picture. Congratulations, your jackassery is immortalized on the internet.

As for the clothes themselves, there is always a mixture of brilliance and dreck on display at Pitti. It’s sort of the nature of the beast. But the really key is knowing what to look for even amongst the better half. The flashy stuff that you’ve never seen before might be appealing on the show floor, but would you really drop a chunk of cash for it? Or wear it anywhere except Pitti?

I find the stuff that really gets my mouth watering for more than those first few seconds are the pieces whose real innovation is in improving classics. Taking a staple and changing every single detail, screwing with the proportions, and screen printing a graphic onto it do not count as improving.

This quilted, sportcoat-shaped piece of outerwear fits the bill perfectly. I’m not usually into the puffer-blazer, but something about this just looks right. It’s not too space-age and doesn’t have that novelty factor that wears away into staleness. The makers have taken something done for years and gotten it to where it should have been in the first place. Bravo.

Isaia’s “innovative new fabric” coat is another good example. It’s actually just an updated Tuscan classic, which is probably why it’s so good. Casentino cloth has been made in Italy since the fifteenth century, albeit usually in blaze orange and made into really huge double-breasted overcoats. Making theirs in a slimmer silhouette in a more approachable color, Isaia has arguably made a classic piece even more classic. That’s the best kind of innovation.