Showmanship and razzmatazz are Domenico Formichetti’s forte, which he has probably learned from his clique of domestic and international rap and trap stars.

For PDF’s sophomore runway show, he admittedly took things further, recreating a prison yard as the show set, complete with a cage standing at the center of the square catwalk awash with dudes playing basketball and card games. 

After the cage’s gates swung open, the fake prisoners dropped color bombs and ran away and the show started with the first, bare-chested model – Italian rapper Tony Effe – sporting striped Bermuda pants, a varsity vest and a chunky silver chain with a chunkier pendant. 

Formichetti’s fashion playbook didn’t change much: he deep dived into streetwear 1.0, channeling DIY, dupe culture and OG sportswear in a wild and clashing celebration of the ‘90s and early 2000s.

There were loose Bermuda pants worn under glossy hooded anoraks, an oversized ostrich bomber jacket and matching shorts mingled with low-rise cargo pants, light-padded Napapijri outerwear, vintage-looking basketball jerseys and bikers splashed with motor-nodding graphics. Cool Timberland boots, chunkier and polished for a lacquer-like finish, peeked out from almost every look. 

More than a design effort, PDF’s spring collection was a styling extravaganza with costume-y bent, down to the fake detention anklet on a varsity jacket-wearing model, or the vintage Nokia cell phone hanging from padded Bermuda pants on another.

Formichetti said that the show was ultimately an invitation to set one’s mind free. “I wanted to make my mind visible,” he explained. “Sometimes it feels like a cage. Like all these emotions and possibilities are trapped in there, and the only way out is to create.”

Judging by their cheers and enthusiasm, the cool kids in attendance felt the same.