MILAN — Pitti Uomo is building further anticipation for the upcoming winter edition, on Wednesday revealing that Paris-based Hed Mayner will be a guest designer at the menswear trade show taking place Jan. 13 to 16.
The Israeli-born designer, who has won plaudits for his gender-fluid designs that play on proportions and layering, will unveil his fall 2026 collection at the Florentine showcase with a runway show. The exact date and venue for the event are still to be disclosed.
“I would like to thank Pitti Uomo for their invitation to present my new collection in January. It is a great honor to be a part of Pitti, which represents a genuine support for creativity, and I am so excited to be able to show my work in such an amazingly rich and historical city like Florence. This new context will encourage me to try new things,” Mayner said.
Hailing from a creative family, Mayner grew interested in fashion during his teenage years, later enrolling at Paris’ Institut Français de la Mode fashion school before launching his namesake brand. In 2019 he was the recipient of the inaugural Karl Lagerfeld Prize at that year’s LVMH Prize for Young Designers.
He has since unveiled his Made in Italy collections on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar, sealing retail partnerships with marquee boutiques including Dover Street Market, United Arrows in Japan, Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Antonia in Milan. Mayner also has several collaborations under his belt, including one with sportswear brand Reebok, for which he has spearheaded the creative direction of the Reebok Ltd. line.
“Creating is thinking with your hands. That’s what Hed Mayner’s collections seem to whisper. At the heart of his vision lies the body — the common denominator between attitude, movement, fit and individual taste. His is a conceptual, almost architectural approach, in open dialogue with the fluidity of the present,” said Francesca Tacconi, special events coordinator at the fair’s parent Pitti Immagine.
“Strength and lightness, craftsmanship and tailoring merge in garments that appear to rest effortlessly on the body yet are charged with physicality. Clothes that defy convention — of gender, of context, even of gravity — interpreting sculptural and oversized forms. Hed never ceases to surprise us with the delicate balance he achieves in every piece, without any apparent effort, through contrasts: poetry and comfort, freedom and precision, intellect and craftsmanship,” she said.
Hed Mayner men‘s spring 2026
Courtesy of Hed Mayner
Pitti Uomo’s Mayner announcement follows news that the 2025 LVMH Prize for Young Designers winner Soshiotsuki by designer Soshi Otsuki will also be a guest designer at the upcoming edition of the fair.
Both brands follow in the footsteps of Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Niccolò Pasqualetti, MM6 Maison Margiela, Setchu, Marine Serre, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, among others, as a guest designer of the men’s trade fair.
The full roster of initiatives will be revealed during a press conference in Milan scheduled for Nov. 5.
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