DOMENICO Formichetti chose to stage a reckoning for his new collection in an industrial lot that represented a brutalist
theatre of the mind. It looked like a back block of the Bronx, complete with a fenced off 'prison' at its centre. The show unfolded like an emotional drama, one that began in
captivity and exploded into cathartic release.
With a giant chain-link fenced cage at its core and a cast
of restless avatars of emotion, the runway became a battleground between inner
chaos and outer composure. What unfolded wasn’t just a collection, it was a
confession, a confrontation, and ultimately, a creative exorcism. Through
garments that moved from constriction to release, the Italian designer posed a
powerful question: What happens when we stop
performing and start telling the truth?
Inside the cage, the show’s opening moments presented not
models, but figures wearing striped uniforms pacing, lifting weights, dropping and doing push-ups. These were all symbols of Formichetti’s internal
dialogue. “I wanted to make my mind visible,” he explained after the show. “Sometimes my mind feels like a cage. Like all these emotions and possibilities are trapped in there, and
the only way out is to create.”
It’s a sentiment that resonated throughout the 42-look
collection, which tracked a journey from restriction to liberation. Gone was
the chaotic spectacle of PDF’s first off-calendar show. In its place: a more
refined, narratively driven presentation that still held onto the brand’s raw
emotional core. This was Formichetti at his most introspective and yet,
paradoxically, his most accessible.
“Sometimes my mind feels like a cage, the only way out is to create.”
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Domenico Formichetti (at right) joins the joyful running in leaps at the finale. |
As the cage cracked open, so too did the silhouettes: evolving from
cinched, armoured garments to looser, more expressive forms. The tension
between containment and release played out in the clothes themselves, tight,
layered outerwear gave way to flowing denim, while oversized tailoring evoked
both swagger and vulnerability.
“There’s always a tension I’m exploring,” Formichetti said. “Between what people expect of me and what I actually want to say.
Between the business, the noise, the image, and the truth.”
It was evident in the elevated treatment of PDF’s signature
elements. The denim was more intricate and layered with sheer mesh
or accented with exposed seams. Outerwear played with exaggerated volumes and
utility detailing, nodding to workwear and street uniforms while subverting
both. And in a move that signals the brand’s growing commercial confidence,
there was a notable focus on footwear: vivid, velvety loafers, striped slides and brilliantly-hued sneakers that felt
pulled from a childhood memory of rebellion.
“There’s always friction, between what
people expect of me and what I actually want to say”
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Formichetti's new collection showed a strong sense of expressiveness.
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The result was a collection that felt more mature but never
muted. Formichetti managed to deepen his aesthetic without losing PDF’s
original pulse, an uncommon achievement for a designer just three years into his new label’s life.
Where many fashion shows stage fantasy, Freed-dom felt
intensely real. The set, a concrete yard hemmed in by steel fencing, was less set
dressing than psychological architecture.
The soundtrack underscored the show’s
emotional gravity, with distorted voiceovers repeating lines like, “Mind can
be a prison, trapping emotions and locking away ideas… Don’t die in silence.
Set your mind free.”
The choreography reflected this tension. Models didn’t just
walk, they ran, jumped and leapt. Each movement
suggested struggle or emergence, often both. It was performance art disguised
as a runway show, with the fashion acting as both costume and revelation.
And yet, the show never tipped into self-indulgence. Even as
it mined Formichetti’s inner world, it spoke to a broader, more universal
experience: the difficulty of expression in an age of constant surveillance and
curated identity. It wasn’t about escape, it was about confrontation.
As with past shows, Formichetti’s casting was personal. He tapped artists, athletes, and collaborators from PDF’s growing
orbit - names like Rafael Leão, Stefon Diggs, Alvin Kamara, Tony Effe, and Julez
Smith. These weren’t traditional models, but represented PDF’s ethos: authenticity
over artifice, emotion over polish.
What unfolded wasn’t just a collection, it was a confession, a confrontation, and ultimately, a creative exorcism
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Italian rapper Tony Effe walked the runway for the designer. |
“They’re not just wearing the clothes - they’re part of the
message,” Formichetti said. “They represent different parts of me, and of the
community we’re building.
The casting strategy aligns with PDF’s grassroots rise.
Since its 2023 launch, the label has been powered by organic momentum with the likes of Drake and Central Cee helping to boost the labels profile, but the real
strength lies in Formichetti’s commitment to accessibility. PDF may show in
Milan, but its soul remains tethered to the streets of Chieti and the manufacturers in his native Abruzzo, where the garments are still produced.
Ultimately, the new collection marked a shift in scale for
PDF, not just commercially, but conceptually. The collection is sharper, the
messaging more focused, the vision more clearly articulated. But it’s also
riskier. It invites the audience to not just admire, but to feel, and that’s a
vulnerable ask in fashion’s notoriously detached arena.
“This is the beginning of something,” Formichetti explained. “Because once you break out, you don’t go back.”
With Free-dom, the designer didn’t just break out but broke
open. What began as an expression of one man’s internal struggle became a
communal declaration, an insistence that style is not just surface, but
substance. In that prison yard in Milan, Formichetti didn’t just show a
collection. He let something go. And in doing so, he asked everyone watching: what are you
still keeping locked inside?
Scroll down to see highlights from the PDF by Domenico Formichetti collection plus exclusive backstage moments.
