Top image: Moschino FW15

Subverting the established and ditching conventionality for freshness is what keeps fashion alive. It’s also what’s pushing the menswear envelope today. Take Jeremy Scott’s appointment as creative director of Moschino back in 2013 – but not without an underpinning of historical motivation. Franco Moschino’s irreverent and iconographical manipulation is intrinsic to the brand’s ideology.

Cue this week’s announcement that Moschino will be making its Italian menswear debut at Pitti Uomo 88. Scott has been announced as the biannual Florence trade show’s menswear guest designer for SS16 in a move that will see the Milanese brand’s first men’s runway show in Italy since Scott took the wheel.

It’s a thrilling time for menswear, and Pitti’s heralding of Scott’s work at Moschino is another rung in the ladder. Look to Hood By Air, whose founder Shayne Oliver was Pitti’s guest designer last season, and who recently joined with Marcelo Burlon County of Milan and a handful of other rising streetwear labels as the New Guards group, a Milan-based production and distribution company working to bring something new to Italian menswear. Far from rejecting history, it’s about balancing the classic beauty of traditional silhouettes with what we may be wearing tomorrow.

Considering this climate, Moschino’s showing at Pitti is as congruous as the disparate iconography dusted across its threads.

As for what we’ll see from Scott when eyes turn to Florence in June is anyone’s guess. But if last season’s Moschino snow-show is any hint it’s fair to say it’ll be a spectacle. Buckle up.

Pitti Uomo runs from 16th to 19th June in Florence. Stay tuned for HERO fashion week coverage, from London to Florence, Milan, Paris and New York.