DSM Kei Ninomiya titled its Spring 2027 collection ‘Our Punk’ and staged it inside the deconsecrated spaces of Sant’Orsola, a former convent turned museum in Florence. The show was the Japanese label’s first standalone men’s presentation, and it arrived at Pitti Uomo 110 with a thesis: punk is not a uniform but a method of individual expression.
The collection incorporated collaborations with heritage brands. A capsule with Schott NYC reimagined the classic Perfecto jacket through Ninomiya’s deconstructive lens, while footwear developed with OTW by Vans translated punk’s DIY ethos into sneaker form with detachable patches and zippered panels.
For Pitti Uomo — a trade fair rooted in the traditions of Italian tailoring — the invitation to a Japanese designer whose work actively dismantles those traditions was a deliberate provocation. But the audience responded with the enthusiasm that has come to define Ninomiya’s trajectory: here is a designer who does not just reference subculture but builds from its underlying principles of autonomy and invention.
Designer Kei Ninomiya channeled the visual language of punk subcultures — leather jackets, army trousers, tartan textiles, safety-pin fastenings — but filtered them through the house’s singular approach to construction. Garments were deconstructed and rebuilt with Ninomiya’s characteristic attention to how fabric meets the body. A leather jacket was cut into strips and rewoven with elastic cord; tartan was appliquéd over sheer organza so the pattern floated away from the body.
The show unfolded as a performance as much as a presentation. Models moved through the space with a choreographed intensity, occasionally stopping to interact with one another. The result drew comparisons to Rei Kawakubo’s early runway experiments, but Ninomiya’s work carries its own vocabulary — one that treats clothing as a sculptural medium rather than a narrative one.
