The tranquil Gardinio di Boboli at dusk was the setting for Jun Takahashi’s very first menswear collection presentation. Guests arrived to a single row of seating encircling the fountain of Neptune, with a backdrop of  the Firenze summer sun setting behind the trees. Eerie pulsing music built up out of the shadows of the surrounding gardens, as a series of mounted spotlights ran a ring of white light around the fountain’s perimeter.

Guests including last year’s Pitti Uomo special guest Thom Browne [second from right] seated as the show begins. 

Without warning or fanfare the UNDERCOVER boys emerged from the winding pathways around the fountain, pacing robotically to the ringing ambient soundtrack . Shimmering metallics and technical synthetic sportswear fabrics played brilliant light games, and perspex visor sunglasses added a further ‘alien’ air to the aesthetic. 

Takahashi successfully  juxtaposed the classical renaissance setting against his futuristic fashions, truly translating his womenswear sensibility into a wearable and technically outstanding mens collection.  

The music diminished and the boys disappeared back down the garden paths from which they came, leaving the seated audience in anticipation for a grand finale that never came. Little did they know what was in store for them a short walk up the hill…