FREE-DOM: PDF breaks out of its own cage at SS26

In fashion, as in life, there are moments when instinct is no longer enough. You have to open up, break out, scream. FREE-DOM, the new PDF collection by Domenico Formichetti, is not just another aesthetic exercise. It’s a declaration of intent. An intimate manifesto disguised as a fashion show. A head-on collision between the public and the private, between what is shown and what is kept silent.

The setting wasn’t chosen at random: a prison courtyard devoid of ornamentation, almost brutalist in its rawness. There, in the heart of that containment space, the collection took shape. The first image: bodies locked in a metal cage, moving like thoughts trapped in a spiral. A tangible metaphor for the designer’s state of mind. “Sometimes my head feels like a prison with no way out. The only key I find is to create,” Formichetti confessed after the show.

That impulse—the visceral need to release what dwells within—became a visual narrative. The pieces that followed the opening didn’t seek superficial impact, but rather structural depth. FREE-DOM is evolution, yes, but without compromise. The silhouettes sharpen, the fabrics gain weight, the constructions engage in dialogue with the artisanal and the urban. It’s a fashion that doesn’t settle: it takes a stand.

In its maturity, PDF doesn’t deny its heritage, but reinterprets it with greater intention. There’s a tension between control and lack of control, between polished and rough, between the technical and the emotional. The footwear offering—more defined, more structured—evidences this leap: there’s a search for precision, without losing rawness. The narrative is reinforced in the casting. Rafael Leão, Stefon Diggs, Alvin Kamara, Tony Effe, Julez Smith: names that cross the codes of sports, music, art, and cultural dissidence.

And that’s where FREE-DOM makes sense beyond the fashion show. Because this collection isn’t just about escaping something—a prison, an expectation, a label—but about opening up to the world with a new truth. About embracing mental gaps as fertile ground. About turning contradiction into style.

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Creative Direction: Domenico Formichetti @dformichetti @pdf.channel
Brand Management: John Baldwin @johnbformayor @goodnewsonlyagency
Project Management: Annachiara Tosadori @annachiaratosadori
Production: Urban Production @urbanproductionevents
Set Design: Make It Count @21_makeitcount
Casting: Emma Farachi @aemmaf
Styling: Ana Sotillo @anaasotillo, Forest Ripperton @forestripperton
Hair: Richard Phillipart @richardphillipart
Makeup: Michelle Webb @michellewebbmakeup for AOFMPro @aofmakeup using Dermalogica @dermalogicauk
Original Music: Sick Luke @sicklukex2, Tha Supreme @thasup, Kelvin Krash @kelvinkrash, Wondagurl @wondagurl
Video: Menhir Studios @menhirstudios
Photography: Mattia Arnone @mattiarnone
Press: REP Agency @repnyc
Sales: Good News Only Agency @goodnewsonlyagency, Annalisa Dalma @annadalma, Elena Difazio @elenathefaz, ACP Agency @acpagency

Special credits and thanks to: Federico Corneli, 21 Make it Count, Napapijri, Servati, Converse, NSS, Vanson, and all their family and friends.

Lil Yachty and Domenico Formichetti seal their friendship with an explosive PDF and Concrete Boys capsule that unites Atlanta style with the Italian designer’s universe.