Every season, Milan Fashion Week show-goers eagerly anticipate SUNNEI‘s show concepts. From models sprinting down the city streets, to crowdsurfing, to being judged by the audience, the brand uses the runway medium not only to showcase its collection but to offer social commentary on the state of the industry. For Fall/Winter 2024, SUNNEI chose to let the models speak for themselves, literally. As each model entered the runway, recordings of the inner dialogue blasted through the speakers.
Our rating? 10/10 While Milan Fashion Week can be unpredictable, there are a few universal truths: it will be nearly impossible to get a taxi, you will be trampled by K-pop fans waiting eagerly outside shows and you can be certain that SUNNEI will present the most spell binding runway of the season. From a sprinting catwalk at FW22 to crowdsurfing at FW23, guest participation is always prevalent at SUNNEI and Spring/Summer 2024 was no different.
One has to expect the unexpected and then some when heading to a Sunnei show. Staging a crazy crowdsurfing fashion show at the Palazzina Sunnei was the last frontier of Sunnei-ism, a status on par with Gucci-fication, or Prada-ness, terms that ratify a sort of uniqueness. Because yes, the Sunneis are a unique, peculiar entity—provocateurs with a tech conscience, sharp-minded and mathematical. Poetically algorithmic. Cautiously successful. With a fierce sense of community. In a word, brilliant.
Founders Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo are testing a new approach with a “master collection,” and Vanguards Group’s CEO Peter Baldaszti sees international potential. “The year of balance” is what Simone Rizzo expects in 2023 for Sunnei, the hip Italian brand he launched with Loris Messina almost a decade ago. Since Vanguards Group took a majority stake in the company in September 2020, the duo has been gradually scaling up the business.
SUNNEI has teamed up with home decor entity Bloc Studios for a material-driven collaboration. Completly cast in marble, the multicolored tableware set elevates the everyday task of dining. After being in the works for two years, the special series collection features reversible glasses, three different-sized plates, wine coolers, a bowl and a pitcher.
Sunnei’s founders Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo have launched their first mentorship program in collaboration with the Milan-based fashion, art and design school Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, better known as NABA. The initiative will offer a student a full scholarship for the two-year postgraduate course in fashion design starting in October, as well as the designer’s mentorship throughout the course.
This season Sunnei designers Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo are expanding the efficiency of the progressive Canvas platform they launched a year ago, right at the beginning of the pandemic. It’s a platform intended to creatively engage the label’s retailers and buyers to create their own Sunnei collections digitally, assembling different outfits, choosing shapes, colors and fabrications as they see fit. After initial skepticism from some fashion industry pundits, the formula has proved extremely successful.
Nata come etichetta indipendente, Sunnei è pronta a fare un grande passo verso una struttura aziendale rafforzata attraverso un investimento con Vanguards. L'accordo mira a sostenere l'espansione globale di Sunnei, griffe fondata a Milano nel 2014 da Loris Messina e Simone Rizzo. Fin dalla sua nascita, il marchio ha lavorato con l'idea di un'autenticità senza tempo e di una qualità che va oltre le tendenze della moda, che sono diventate la firma della label. Vanguards è stata lanciata come piattaforma di investimento all'inizio del 2020, nata dall'esperienza del ceo Peter Baldaszti in partnership con Agoston Gubicza di GB & partners e l'Exim cross-border fund. Attraverso strategie di business innovative e ambiziose, Vanguards riconosce che la crescita del settore della moda e dello stile di vita dipende da un'attenta sinergia di pratiche commerciali responsabili e ambizioni commerciali.
