Athletic codes have extended into some of his best apparel offerings. Football, hockey, and pinstripe baseball jerseys have been elevated with knit construction instead of the usual mesh. Silver rings look like bandages you wrap around your fingers to hide the cuts you may get on the field during games. His latest collection includes paneled zip-ups and shorts constructed by piecing together scraps of mesh jerseys. Formichetti continues to find ways to recontextualize these sports through his own lens.
“It’s really hard to make the first of something in clothing. Everything looks the same,” says Formichetti. “So, I’m trying to find that spot.”
Formichetti stayed engulfed in the world of skate and snowboarding as a teenager. He also developed an interest in graffiti that still informs his approach to design to this day through pieces like bomber jackets and flowy pants that look like they’ve been airbrushed.
Despite his infatuation with these subcultures that all filter into streetwear while he was growing up in Italy, Formichetti says that the country’s streetwear culture is a fairly recent phenomenon.
“Everyone was in a Gucci polo and skinny pants,” says Formichetti. “You used to go dancing in a dress shirt or a polo. You couldn’t go with a hoodie. You would never get inside. That was Italy when I was younger.”
Before it became more widely embraced in his home country, Formichetti found other ways to participate in streetwear. He would draw on T-shirts and sketch constantly. Throughout the 2010s, Formichetti used the power of social media to tap into the subculture virtually. He became known for his fit pics on Instagram featuring the latest pieces from top brands at the time, like Supreme and Off-White. This eventually culminated in the launch of his first brand in 2018, Formy Studio. The brand only lasted two years. Formichetti used his time indoors during the pandemic to refocus his approach before launching PDF in 2021.
“My taste really changed. I was learning more about fashion and talking with big designers. I wanted to do something different,” says Formichetti. “Not just drops online. I wanted to build a formal brand.”
Back in January, Formichetti hosted his first presentation during Milan Fashion Week for PDF’s third collection, The Dirt. Models stood in rows on a mirrored surface. The futuristic set design was meant to contrast the distressed clothing. The inspiration for The Dirt was the anti-heroes of the sports world—think Dennis Rodman or Mario Balotelli. Formichetti says that he focused on new shapes and overall cohesiveness. The result was sportswear-inspired items with highlights like colorful bottoms airbrushed to look like motocross pants and oversized pink plaid ski coats.
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