Hed Mayner Will Show Twisted Tailoring for Fall 2026 at Pitti Uomo

The crop of designers invited to guest-show at this week’s edition of Pitti Uomo share a similar creative process.

Rooted in menswear classicism and rich in sartorial references, that process often lands in unexpected and experimental territory, marking a departure from what’s considered traditional.

Among them, the Paris-based, Israeli-born Hed Mayner is hitting Florence with his men’s fall 2026 show. He has won plaudits — and the inaugural Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the 2019 LVMH Prize for Young Designers — for his gender-fluid designs that play on proportions and layering.

The designer developed his penchant for twisted tailoring in response to his obsession with the shape of the body, seeking ways to mold it after his vision without compromising the credibility or wearability of his pieces.

“A big part of my work is connected to the men’s world and also the classical elements coming from there, and in my process and work there are always these notions, but then they’re kind of stretched or blurred into something new,” Mayner told WWD in an interview days before the show.

Pitti Uomo is known as the mecca of menswear traditionalism and Mayner’s subverted iterations are sure to bring an unusual perspective to the fair.

“I think it’s a good context to show this kind of work, this kind of method,” the designer said.

Like many of his fellow guest designers at Pitti Uomo this season, Mayner is leveraging the Pitti Uomo showcase to reinstate his signature fashion codes.

He’s not one to look for articulate narratives — much in the vein of deconstructivism, his collections are studies on form and silhouettes.

“There really isn’t narrative storytelling,” Mayner said about the men’s fall 2026 collection. “My work hinges on the idea of identity always — and blurring it. It’s more about the mood of the people and how they look and trying to kind of weave a story through it. It’s about the form, the purity of the form, and how it transforms the body [giving] a new kind of attitude. In that sense, maybe that’s the narrative,” Mayner explained.

“For me, the idea of form is the essence of it all. First of all, it’s the essence of our body, but then also of how we dress, how we show it, and how we move. And I feel that with this kind of [form-driven] approach, you can really convey a certain way of being, a certain type of attitude, you can touch the essence of it,” Mayner said.

“By working on it, you shape not only the silhouette but also the character of its wearer,” he added.

Further highlighting his attitude-seeking approach, Mayner’s venue of choice for the show takes the designer’s creations to an almost-quotidian setting. The runway event — scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. CET — takes place at Palazzina Reale di Santa Maria Novella, a 1930s brutalist marble building adjacent to Florence’s train station, originally built to host the Italian royal family on their visits to the city.

With one facade overlooking the train station and the other the bustling nearby streets, it’s sure to give passersby a reason to enjoy their commute.

“Florence is a city I used to visit a lot. I used to work in Tuscany for two years [for a manufacturing company.] When the Pitti Uomo invitation came, I had to find a way to connect [my work] with the city, connect the brand to it in terms of aesthetic and what I want to show,” Mayner said.

“Many times, cities like Florence — very monumental and so important historically — look like museums, [providing] a ‘look, don’t touch’ kind of experience, and I didn’t want that for the show. Also, I want the show to feel more dynamic and connected to the city,” he said.

The white Carrara marble building will contrast with Mayner’s sculpturally rounded silhouettes done in a rich, but muted, palette of browns, navy blues, grays and occasional pops of zingy colors, including purple, Klein blue, flashy green and mirror silver.

“The shapes and silhouettes are really worked around the body, more connected to it than ever before,” Mayner said. “I’ve brought back the body and put it center stage using tailoring as a tool to highlight the different parts individually,” he explained.

“Proportions are always twisted, resulting in more fitted or out-of-the-body silhouettes, mixed and weaved together in the collection,” the designer offered.  

By fitting many of the looks on female bodies and using varied textiles, including lots of jersey mimicking woven fabrics or knitted faux fur, Mayner has managed to achieve the lineup’s two defining silhouettes, which evoke different characters, too, as he put it. The runway show will feature some female models.

In his study on form, Mayner sought to highlight clashing contrasts among different outfits and within each of them.

For example, the exaggerated round-shaped shoulders of tailored jackets and capes are further highlighted by tight-nipped waists; pleated pieces are done in bondage-inspired fabrics lending them a “furniture-like quality, almost as if they were objects more than clothing,” Mayner said; three-dimensional topcoats with squarish proportions appear narrow and fitted on the front and oversized on the back.

“I’ve been playing with [juxtaposing] normality to something eccentric,” Mayner said, adding that for example, hem and sleeve lengths are kept very traditional to make the experimental silhouettes more “digestible.”

Hailing from a creative family, Mayner became interested in fashion during his teenage years, later enrolling at Paris’ Institut Français de la Mode fashion school before launching his namesake brand in 2015 and winning the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize for Young Designers four years later.

He has traditionally 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.

Italy holds as special place in Mayner’s heart, for it’s been a formative country where he learned to master the sartorial skills — and eventually subvert them. It’s also the country where most of his production takes place and where he found partners that have helped him structure the company and obtain solidity.  

Coming to Florence with a show feels like a full-circle moment, he said.

“I just expect the best from the Pitti Uomo experience… It’s going to be a good moment to meet a lot of buyers, to meet the people I produce my clothing with and people in my team are just happy about it. There’s a great energy surrounding this event,” Mayner said.

Over the past 11 years, the designer’s namesake brand has grown organically, not without the hurdles faced by independent labels navigating the polarized world of luxury fashion. Hed Mayner generates about 40 to 50 percent of its business in Asia and the rest is split between Europe and the U.S.

“First of all I’m happy and feel grateful for what I have, even just like the fact that I’m working and in the business. I want to keep on going — growing my myself and my company,” he said.