Is there anything that screams Pitti Uomo more than a man in a suit and tie?
When thinking about the trade show’s defining look — net of the Pitti peacocks’ flamboyant outfits — traditional tailoring quickly comes to mind. It still takes the lion’s share of the spotlight at the Fortezza da Basso fairgrounds, both in the offerings of exhibiting brands and in the attendees’ street-style looks.
While the menswear mecca has evolved its assortment and helped shift men’s tastes over time, expanding to newer territories, suits remain ubiquitous. In celebration of that, a unique event is scheduled for Tuesday as part of the trade show’s roster of events.
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Called Sebiro Sanpo, the Japanese expression for “Suit Walk,” it’s a Japan-born roving happening that gathers tailoring fans for a city walk, or parade, with no other objective than the celebration of traditional menswear.
Suits hold a special cultural role in Japan, seen as a tangible sign of the country’s modernization and westernization during the Meiji era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Now in its ninth edition, Sebiro Sanpo was launched as a not-for-profit organization in 2023 by a group of six menswear experts from the island nation: Tomohiro Inaba, a buyer at Isetan Shinjuku Mitsukoshi; Tomoyoshi Takada, founder and creative director of the Wearlness store; Yusuke Tajima, director of business strategy at the Four Leaf vintage store; Takahiro Miyamoto, a buyer at fashion retailer Guji; Toshihiro Yasutake, a freelance communication expert, and Yusuke Fukushima, a freelance men’s buyer and fashion director.
Previous parades have been held in Tokyo and Osaka, while the first overseas event was in Seoul last May. The Florentine walk is the first outside Asia.
“It was all the six organizers’ dream to come to Pitti Uomo together with Sebiro Sanpo,” said Yoshimi Hasegawa, project coordinator at Sebiro Sanpo and a public relations and marketing adviser to Italian woolen mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, which is supporting the event alongside the trade show.
Beyond the obvious link with Pitti Uomo as a menswear trade show, Hasegawa highlighted the Japanese and Italian menswear industries’ many ties and interconnections. To be sure, according to preliminary data released by Confindustria Moda, exports to the country in the first seven months of 2025 to July 30 were up 3.7 percent to 232 million euros.
“The organizers’ spirit is that they really love suits, and nowadays the number of people into traditional tailoring is diminishing. Sebiro Sanpo aims to showcase the charm and the power of the suit,” she said.
The event typically gathers about 100 attendees, many with strong social media followings, who use their digital platforms to amplify it and spread the word on the relevance of tailoring today. The obvious requirement is that all attendees wear a full suit and a tie and suit separates aren’t allowed, even though they are widely popular, even among regular Pitti goers.
“This is a very interesting experience, and a networking opportunity also, to find friends and like-minded people, and also nowadays people don’t have many opportunities to wear a full suit outside work. And these are all people sharing the same passion for wearing suits,” Hasegawa said. “The suit is a symbol of modern menswear, and we expect people looking at the Sebiro Sanpo event to realize the meaning of the suit and tailoring.”
For Vitale Barberis Canonico, which is embracing this event under the tag line “VBC Supports All Suit Lovers,” the move is intended as an opportunity to share the importance of tailoring with younger generations that have yet to discover the suited-up look. As part of its linkup, the mill is supplying the fabrics for the suits the six organizers are sporting for the walk.
The textile specialist already supported the sixth Sebiro Sanpo held last April in Osaka.
The Florentine leg of the Sebiro Sanpo kicks off inside the Fortezza da Basso fairgrounds at 2 p.m. CET and the 30-minute walk will take attendees to the square of the landmark Santa Maria Novella church. An afterparty is planned for later in the day.
The event has opened up discussions among organizers about taking the next Sebiro Sanpo outside Japan once again, and while declining to share what the next stops might be, Hasegawa said they will always need to align with the event’s core values.
“Pitti Uomo is in the center of the menswear conversation, and I believe that there aren’t many other exhibitions like this, particularly for the modern tailoring category,” she said.
