Pitti Immagine Uomo continues to announce what initiatives and guests will enliven its next edition taking place in Florence, June 16–19, 2026.
Guest designer of the upcoming show will be DSM Kei Ninomiya, staging its s/s 2027 menswear collection with a distinguishing runway event.
The spirit of DSM—the first label by Dover Street Market—will take center stage through the vision of Kei Ninomiya, a Japanese designer known for his innovative, modular approach to construction.
After studying French literature in Tokyo and attending the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, he joined Comme des Garçons as a pattern maker.
Under the mentorship of Rei Kawakubo, who directed him to establish his own label within the CDG umbrella, he launched Noir Kei Ninomiya in 2012. His sculptural, meticulously crafted work debuted on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar in 2019.
The new Dover Street Market brand was launched in June 2025 with the s/s 2026 collection of DSM Kei Ninomiya.
The DSM brand acts like a vessel to nurture all kinds of creative endeavors, projects, and experiments. It is imagined as a panoply of different categories, sometimes encompassing collections of varying sizes, appealing to a range of tastes, sometimes purely product-based, and always without borders and preconceived ideas about what a brand should be and how it is sold and when.
Departing somewhat from the idea of the existing and continuing DSM brand development division, DSM works in concert with in-house designers as well as with outside partners with their own visions and ambitions.
The first brand, DSM Kei Ninomiya, is entirely different from his own brand, Noir Kei Ninomiya, being more accessible and thematic, and for all ages and genders.
“Going to Florence, I felt a sense of both its historic, solemn side and its open, welcoming atmosphere, and Pitti Uomo is a historic event that supports creativity,” commented Kei Ninomiya.
“I also appreciate the very positive and open-minded attitude of everyone involved. I am honored for this opportunity,” he added.
“It was with a sense of spontaneous enthusiasm that we wished to invite DSM Kei Ninomiya to the exceptional context and audience of Pitti Uomo,” explained Francesca Tacconi, special events coordinator, Pitti Immagine.
“In this project, Ninomiya distances himself from the structural complexity and experimental audacity of Noir, revealing an absolute versatility in shifting skins without weakening his vision,” she continued.
“Inclusive, ageless, and agender, the wardrobe signed DSM Kei Ninomiya opens up to a broader and more transversal community: it captures a contemporary sensibility, reflects its collective and authentic energy, and remains attentive to a plurality of voices. Yet it firmly resists any definition, avoiding the allure of labels in order to affirm a full and radical creative freedom,” Tacconi summed up.