MILAN — DSM Kei Ninomiya — the newfangled Dover Street Market private label currently helmed by the designer behind Noir, the brand part of the Comme des Garçons family — is the guest designer of menswear trade show Pitti Uomo, running June 16 to 19, WWD can exclusively reveal.
Marking its runway debut in Florence, DSM Kei Ninomiya will stage a fashion show for the spring 2027 menswear collection. Details on the date and location have yet to be disclosed.
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“Having our collection seen by a wide audience and presenting it in a city where Dover Street Market does not currently have a presence is a new endeavor for DSM, and I believe it will be an exciting and challenging experience. It’s not about us imposing anything, but I hope we can express the freedom and joy of fashion,” Ninomiya said in emailed remarks.
Without revealing many details, he shared a picture drawn from Jamie Reid’s body of work. The legendary British visual artist is best known for developing the record cover for the Sex Pistols single “God Save the Queen,” one of the most representative images of the punk era.
“Going to Florence, I feel a sense of both its historic, solemn side and its open, welcoming atmosphere. Pitti Uomo is an historic event that supports creativity. I also appreciate the very positive and open-minded attitude of everyone involved. I am honored to have been given this opportunity,” Ninomiya offered.
The private label was introduced in June last year during men’s fashion week in Paris with Adrian Joffe describing it as “a kind of guest of each designer who we will choose to work with.” The brand is to work in concert with designers part of the Comme des Garçons orbit, as well as with outside partners.
Ninomiya’s collections under his Noir moniker are often described as conceptual, boasting complex constructions and loads of technical experimentation, often yielding otherworldly silhouettes. A graduate of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, who also holds a degree in French literature, the Japanese designer joined Comme des Garçons as a pattern-maker before launching his Noir Kei Ninomiya label in 2012, under Rei Kawakubo’s mentorship. He first joined the Paris Fashion Week calendar in 2019.
“In the DSM Kei Ninomiya project, Ninomiya distances himself from the structural complexity and experimental audacity of Noir, revealing an absolute versatility in shifting skins without weakening his vision,” said Francesca Tacconi, special events coordinator at Pitti Immagine, the menswear trade show’s parent.
“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 limiting definition, avoiding the allure of labels in order to affirm a full and radical creative freedom,” she offered.
Pitti Uomo’s DSM Kei Ninomiya announcement follows news that Simone Rocha will also be a guest designer at the upcoming edition of the fair.
Both brands follow in the footsteps of Hed Mayner, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Niccolò Pasqualetti, MM6 Maison Margiela, Setchu, Marine Serre, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, among others, as a guest designer of the men’s trade fair.
