The culture of "Italian dad snaps" pioneered by 'LEON'

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I think LEON magazine was doing street style photography at Pitti Uomo before Scott Schuman. THE SARTORIALIST was published in 2005, while LEON was founded in 2001. They've been publishing Pitti reports since shortly after its launch. Initially, they treated the fashion styles of real Italian men as a kind of verification image or one of the magazine's elements, but about 10 years ago they started a separate supplement called SNAP LEON. Volume 22 will be coming out soon.


I think it was LEON magazine that established street style photography at Pitti Uomo as a cultural phenomenon. Nowadays, many bloggers and influencers are snapping photos everywhere with professional-grade cameras, but it was definitely LEON that started street style photography in the courtyard of the venue using telephoto lenses. At first, we were sometimes met with menacing looks like, "What are you taking pictures of!", but recently, people have been coming up to us and asking, "Aren't you going to take a picture of me?". Being photographed by LEON is like being branded as fashionable, so it's only since LEON started taking street style photos that people wanting to be photographed have been loitering around the courtyard for so long. We were even commissioned by the Pitti Association to exhibit our street style photos in the main pavilion. As the name LEON has become more well-known, it's also become easier to get interviews.

While bloggers and Instagrammers' Pitti Uomo street style photos are one-offs, with SNAP LEON, if you look at the photos from several years ago, you can literally see the shifts in trends. One reason for this is that the photos are edited clearly by item, but another is that we've been observing the same things at a fixed point for a long time, so it's become big data. That's why we can understand the big trends and even predict what's coming next. It's also very useful in creating the magazine.


Street fashion is trending right now, but you can see from the street style photos that it took a very slow but steady time to get to this point. It changes little by little each season, and if you look at it over several years, it's definitely changing. When I hear journalists saying things like, "This year's Pitti Uomo is so unremarkable," I think they have no eye for it.

Men's classics change slowly, so last year's suggestions are still relevant this year, and this year's trends will remain relevant next season. Items that were popular at Pitti Uomo don't go out of style the following season. That's one of its strengths and advantages. LEON magazine has always been dedicated to creating "cool" styles for adults, so we draw heavily on these kinds of examples when creating our pages.


Speaking from my own personal experience, when I was young, I was exposed to street style and high fashion, and knew absolutely nothing about classic fashion. When I joined LEON magazine, I remember hesitating even to enter the classic fashion booth on my first trip to Pitti Uomo. Everyone around me was impeccably dressed in suits, and it felt a little intimidating, but that was what made it cool. It seemed like they were putting up a barrier in a good way. The coolness of Italian men's suits is something completely different from the suits worn by Japanese businessmen, and I think that admiration for them and my desire to become an adult who can wear a suit stylishly myself is one of the driving forces behind my career as an editor.

My friends, stylish Italian gentlemen, come to ISETAN MEN'S store every time. This event is the only way I can reunite with them, so I'm really looking forward to it. On the 22nd, there will also be a talk show with buyer Inaba, so please come and join us. I think I'll be able to talk more about my personal experiences at Pitti Uomo.

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▼ 1. Tomohiro Inaba (Mitsukoshi Isetan Buyer)
▼ 2. Tomoka Takada (Creative Director, "Colony Clothing")
▼ 3. Mika Hirose (Model/Talent)
▼ 4. KING MASA
▼ 5. Hiroshi Ishii (Editor-in-Chief of 'LEON' magazine)

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