Island Diary.

Inis Meáin is the only Irish brand that we know of showing at Pitti, the world’s largest luxury menswear show, and also one of the longest-standing exhibitors, having made the trip to Florence every January for many decades now.

The main objective has always been to meet the buyers from our discerning retail partners around the world, show them our new collection and take note of their orders for their stores for the following Autumn / Winter. Then we return to Inis Meáin, order super-premium yarns from our yarn partners to make those orders, finish size grading the new styles and then get stuck into knitting and finishing our sweaters to deliver to those stores around the world from July onwards.

This year we met many of our Inis Meáin specialist stockists as usual at the show including Bergdorf Goodman (New York), Brown Thomas (Dublin), Grey Flannel (London), Dick’s (Edinburgh), Mandombugs (Shanghai) and Blazer for Men from just outside Toronto. We were delighted to meet again and write an order for Sergiy, co-founder and his son Nico of Ostriv Concept Stores in Kyiv and Lviv, Ukraine who had previously stocked Inis Meáin for several years. And thankfully too many other wonderful owner/managers and buyers from loyal Inis Meáin stockists to mention, but whose visits to our stand were so appreciated.

A growing element of the show for us is the increasingly diverse world of marketing – from publishers, to writers, to photographers to content creators. We reconnected with the lovely Tom Stubbs who created one of his ever-energetic videos with Ruairí on the stand and who has his name on a DB Relaxed Jacket as he called it for next season. We met Naomi Rougeau who wrote the wonderful Robb Report – Genius at Work feature on Inis Meáin a few months ago and who thoughtfully carried our first hard copy of the piece all the way from New York to Florence – míle buíochas to her, Tom and to all who will hopefully help us spread the words “Inis Meáin” a little further again in 2025.

Another really valuable part of Pitti this year was connecting with other makers who have a similar clientele and being able to talk and exchange information about shared challenges, and to meet people from partner companies that we work with – from our yarn spinners to our digital marketeers. It all added up to a really hectic show, but when you’re based as remotely as we are, it is a wonderful opportunity to work more closely with so many over a few days in one beautiful location.

Ridges Aran Turtle Neck – one of the preferred picks at Pitti Uomo