Crafted into the rolling hills of Tuscany (Capannuccia, to be exact), Fendi’s brand new €50 million leather goods factory is as architecturally exquisite as it is sustainable: the building is built on seven hectares of greenery, oh and there’s also a 700-olive tree grove. Showing as this season’s Pitti Uomo special guest, Pitti’s home of Florence is a key part of Fendi’s history: Silvia Venturini Fendi’s grandmother, Adele, had travelled from Rome to Florence to learn the art of leather craftsmanship.

It was inside Fendi’s new factory that the house showed their SS24 menswear show, on a normal working day amongst the artisans busy creating the very bags held by models walking between the machinery and tables: Silvia Venturini Fendi was keen to express how the artisans in the factory today use highly-specialised machinery, embracing old traditions with new technologies.

The environment was reflected in the collection, which saw worker overcoats rendered in soft wool with tailor’s measuring tape hanging around the collar and through loops. Fendi worker passes were clipped on for identification purposes and a short denim multi-pocket apron managed to make utility sexy alongside kinky leather iterations. Straight from the boardroom, ties were loosened ready for clocking off time and elongated shirting untucked. Office essential: some models held Fendi coffee carriers containing three recycled plastic Fendi coffee cups (caffeine chic) as they strolled around the factory.

Trousers were crafted with workwear straps, tape measures were clipped onto belt hooks and there was even a FF-branded toolbelt complete with traditional tailor’s apparatus. Designed by Delfina Delettrez Fendi, ‘Made in Fendi’ dog-tag necklaces and ‘StaFF Only’ pins toyed with notions of the workplace. All the while, the factory kept buzzing away in the background. Flower jacquards translated the outside greenery to the collection, as did beautiful natural dyes that coloured the garments – including nettle fibre knitwear yard-dyed with vegetal pigments – carpenter pants were made luxurious, rendered in supple leather, and stitching patterns were left on show across a series of silhouette-shifting looks.

At the finale, Silvia Venturini Fendi came out for her bow with the artisans who created the collection – this was an ode to them, crafted by them.