Fashion is a reflection of the world we live in. And this season at Pitti Uomo and Milan Fashion Week Men’s, as a heatwave struck Europe and the looksmaxxing movement circulating around GLP-1s and peptides continues to shift body ideals, runways and presentations held a mirror up to our changing world.

This, coupled with a menswear industry in flux and plenty of new international designers, made for an interesting Pitti Uomo (June 16 to 19) and Milan Fashion Week Men’s (June 19 to 23) Spring/Summer 2027 season.

Here are our key takeaways.

Brands navigate a challenging menswear landscape

The menswear industry continues to face macroeconomic challenges. In Italy alone, 26,000 multi-brand stores closed over the last five years and the menswear market declined 1.7% to €9.38 billion from 2024 to 2025.

Despite the headwinds, menswear trade show Pitti Uomo continues to perform well, with 730 global brands exhibiting this season, consistent with previous editions. Though new Pitti Immagine CEO Ivano Cauli still has his work cut out. “Outside, the environment is changing so fast — the market is changing a lot, and it is not so strong,” he says. “New innovations are coming every day, our stakeholders are working differently and there’s a lot of challenges we need to address.” The key is finding new opportunities for brand partners, Cauli adds. This edition, he has built a new AI platform that collects data from buyers, such as who they stock or the style they’re looking for, which brands can use to source wholesale partners.

“Milan Fashion Week Men’s provides an international platform where brands of different sizes can present their vision to buyers, media, and industry professionals from around the world. Through our ongoing support for emerging talent and our close collaboration with Pitti Uomo, we continue to invest in the future of menswear and in the strength of the entire Italian fashion system,” says Carlo Capasa, president of MFW Men’s organizer Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI). “The current market is undoubtedly challenging, but moments like these also encourage brands to rethink, innovate, and strengthen their identity.”

“Despite the current challenges facing the market, we are pleased with this edition,” Capasa continues. “It demonstrated the resilience of our fashion system, and, above all, confirmed that creativity remains the driving force of Italian fashion and the greatest strength of Milan Fashion Week.”

Tailoring to turned-up heat

The heatwave during Pitti and MFW Men’s — where temperatures reached highs of 99°F — was a harsh reminder that Europe’s spring and summer climate is intensifying. We’ve long reported on so-called “heat stress” at Vogue Business, and its effect on manufacturing and supply chains. But as the temperatures rose this fashion week, there were some very real conversations transpiring among designers and buyers about what summer menswear and men’s week will look like when the planet gets even hotter.

“It’s like trying to do show season in a BBQ,” says Murray Clark, head of editorial content at British GQ. “Summers are becoming alarmingly hot, and I think that’ll really push the legacy tailoring brands to adapt; we will always need a good suit, we just need said suit to let us breathe.”

Simon Longland, buying director of Harrods, echoes the sentiment. “The exceptional temperatures became an unavoidable part of the week and reinforced many of the themes we saw on the runway: lightness, ease, and relaxed sophistication,” he says.

In response, many designers placed emphasis on the lightweight nature of their fabrics. “From the outset, I set out to create tailored pieces that are crafted from the lightest weight canvas construction,” says Simon Holloway, creative director of Dunhill, which, for the second season, held appointments instead of a traditional show. “Linen is the basis for our high summer collections. Jackets and pants are tailored in an exclusive hopsack linen woven from high twist yarns that wear beautifully even in the heat. Paired with the finest handkerchief linen shirts in wonderful colors and stripes, they are the perfectly relaxed yet tasteful way to look cool and crisp in the height of summer.”

“The collection is mostly tailored, but very, very lightweight,” Paul Smith said at a preview ahead of his show. “It’s made in silk cotton, very lightweight and with hardly any interlining. So you can wear it in the heat, maybe not extreme heat, but in warm weather.”

As more affluent consumers shift their spend to travel, the brands shooting to dress them as they jetset across the world are also turning to lighter textiles. Both Etro and Canali riffed off far-flung travel adventures this season. The former staged its presentation in front of a stream train and stacks of vintage luggage inside the Leonardo da Vinci Science Museum, while, the latter staged a presentation inspired by a trip to India, with spices throughout the space, as well as a varied closet of suitable shorts and linens.

“While not something I’m actively thinking about myself in buys, I do think rising temperatures lay in the back of buyers’ minds and this is seen in what clients purchase now,” says Ramon Luna, senior buyer at online luxury retailer Fwrd. “We’re seeing more lightweight, airy, and breathable fabrications bubble up and work well.”

“Climate change is becoming increasingly evident, and this is precisely why environmental sustainability has long been one of the core pillars of CNMI’s work,” says Capasa. “As for the impact of increasingly high temperatures during Milan Fashion Week Men’s, we fully understand the challenges they can create for guests, professionals, and everyone involved. We hope that, going forward, the industry will continue to identify solutions that make the experience more comfortable for everyone attending, while preserving the quality of the Milan Fashion Week experience for all.”

Shifting proportions in the looksmaxxing era

As predicted, the looksmaxxing movement is having a bearing on menswear, with designers reflecting the changing beauty ideals materializing in tandem, from peptide-induced muscle-mania to Ozempic-effect thinness.

There was a marked uptick in muscular, thick-set models on the runway in Milan, often dressed in tight garments and ultra-short shorts to show off their athletic figures. This was most evident at Dolce & Gabbana, where the opening portion of the show featured muscular models meandering between pillars in nothing but cotton shorts and dressing gowns. Later in the show, several looks featured fitted knits and hot pants. At Ralph Lauren, one model in a tight black knit and shorts drove a lot of conversation post-show.

At Saul Nash, the designer, who always riffs off sports and movement, looked to wrestling for part of his collection, with second-skin tops and short shorts. “There’s a spectrum of bodies in the show this season,” the designer said backstage. “It really reflects who’s around me. It ranges from a hunk to someone that likes to do callisthenics, who is a little bit leaner.” The garments are also adaptable, Nash added, depending how much skin the wearer would like to show.

Elsewhere this season, a skinnier silhouette is also emerging. Prada’s show featured an ultra-slim silhouette, as designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons sought to strip back and focus on closet staples like a jean, T-shirt, and jean jacket. The idea was to be “anti-complication, anti-decoration”, Simons said in a press conference pre-show. But the narrow silhouette became a key talking point among show-goers.

If Pitti and Milan are anything to go by, we’ll also be baring more skin come next spring. At Paul Smith, shirts were left unbuttoned to the navel to reveal the chest, while Prada, Saul Nash and Shinyakozuka featured sheer fabrics that show the shape of the body underneath.

What’s leading to this shift? “We’re presented with a relentless idealized male form on social media at all times, whether that’s muscular or skinny,” says Dazed executive editor Jack Sunnucks. “I think a lot of men I know now want this kind of both muscular and lean physique, which is pretty impossible if it’s not your full-time job, or without the help of peptides, steroids, or GLP-1s. The runway always reflects reality. So this trend was always going to come for the men’s runway, eventually.”

While buyers are aware of the shift, they’re still assessing the long-term impact of these changes in silhouette. “We are seeing both ends of the spectrum become more prominent within a select number of collections. However, we have a clear understanding of our customer and are careful to assess where these trends are relevant and where they are not,” says Sophie Jordan, menswear buying director at Mytheresa. “While it can generate interest editorially and on the runway, we see greater long-term demand in silhouettes that offer versatility, comfort, and broader relevance to our customer base.”

An “abundance of choice”

Across Pitti and Milan, there was a broad spectrum of shows and presentations this season, from the tailoring stalwarts all the way to fresh young designers from around the globe.

“I think now, more than ever, we’re seeing menswear continue to evolve to the point of having an abundance of choice,” says Luna. “There’s something for everyone now at a grand scale, and I think this has been exemplified by the diverse range of designers, both geographically and aesthetically, that showed at Pitti this season.”

At Pitti, visiting designer Simone Rocha presented her first dedicated menswear show, which translated her women’s design codes into a fresh take on masculine styles. Think tailoring with heavy pearl embellishments, broderie anglaise shorts, and leather aprons. “Simone Rocha’s first dedicated menswear show was a personal highlight during Pitti,” Luna adds. “As a long-time fan of Simone’s work, it was great to see her worldview come to life in her first standalone men’s collection.”

Over in Milan, Ralph Lauren returned to the schedule for the second year running, with a well-received show that spanned its Purple Label and Polo collections. “Ralph was my highlight,” says Dazed’s Sunnucks. “It was all the things that I love in fashion, a remix of a lot of the codes that he set the blueprint for: preppiness, aged denim, tailoring, chinos, and blazers. I think the brand really showed that it’s the master of that, and there’s a reason why so many stylists and editors are wearing a blue polo shirt, chinos, and a baseball cap.”

Thom Browne was new to the Milan schedule this season, presenting a sun-drenched (and very hot) menswear show on the final day. “Another defining feature of this edition [of MFW Men’s] was its strong international dimension,” Capasa says. “We were delighted to welcome globally renowned brands such as Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne, and Paul Smith. Their presence reinforces Milan’s international appeal and confirms the city’s role as one of the world’s leading fashion capitals.”

New names to watch

At Pitti, South Korean designer Jiyong Kim was a highlight, exhibiting his unique sun-bleaching technique, which naturally dyes limited runs of workwear jackets and coats. The brand was first picked up by leading Japan store GR8 in Tokyo three years ago, and continues to have 100% sell-through, the designer said during the fair. It’s a testament to menswear pre-occupation with craft and technique, with each jacket taking 100 days to dye. “I was incredibly impressed by the sun-bleaching process of Kim and the many ways they applied that technique, using pleats and collars and other parts of construction, or shrink-wrapping garments to create new effects,” Fwrd’s Luna says.

In Milan, newcomers included Italian Colombian label Garcias, which staged a bold debut celebrating designer Nicolas Martin Garcia’s Latin American roots. Inside the show venue, there was a barber, a flower market, a fruit stand and even an old couple knitting, inspired by a Colombian neighborhood. Plus, Japanese designer Shinyakozuka made his Milan debut, after presenting his utilitarian contemporary fashion at Pitti Uomo last season.

Arma was another highlight, according to Mytheresa’s Jordan, who’s looking forward to introducing the brand onsite from SS27. “The silhouettes feel incredibly wearable, the color palette is confident, and the value proposition is compelling,” she says.

Fondazione Sozzani also presented several new design talents, including a debut from Copenhagen import Martin Quad, alongside Milan-based designer Domenico Orefice. “We continued our commitment to supporting the next generation of designers through our Men’s Fashion Hub at Fondazione Sozzani this season,” Capasa says. “The project was created to give emerging brands a platform to present their collections and connect with international buyers and media. Supporting young talent has always been one of CNMI’s priorities, because we believe that today’s emerging designers are the future of Italian fashion.”

As we look ahead to Paris Fashion Week Men’s, and temperatures continue to rise, SS27 promises to be a unique season, and perhaps a sign of times ahead.