Sunnei creative directors Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo announce their departure

A double shock at Sunnei. First, a present that wasn’t a present. Then, an surprising announcement two hours later. In an announcement issued on Friday night, Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo defined that they’re leaving their mens- and womenswear ready-to-wear label.

“After ten years, we feel an urgent need to change form, but not direction. We will continue to work in the realm of creativity, with even greater freedom, radicalism and a desire to experiment,” they acknowledged in a short be aware.

Just a few hours earlier, the duo behind Sunnei had taken the freedom of exhibiting no seems in any respect to a room filled with company. In place of a standard runway present, they staged a larger-than-life public sale in the midst of vogue week, in collaboration with Christie’s—a thinly veiled denunciation of the commodification of creativity.

Once everybody had taken their seats in what seemed to be an auditorium, with an vintage picket lectern bearing the identify Christie’s in giant gold letters at centre stage, a voice introduced that what was about to unfold was not a vogue present however “an urgent act”. Attendants then handed out what appeared like a listing itemizing the heaps on the market, full with descriptions and estimated costs.

The first shock was that the one two heaps offered have been two monumental picket crates. The first lot was described as “a testament to Made in Italy, imbued with creativity and a bold aesthetic”, whereas the second “is sold as a pair.”

“The work is characterised by a continuous dialogue between digital and physical reality, extending to multidisciplinary projects that blur the boundaries between fashion, design and aesthetic exploration.”

At this level, the fashions entered the room and took up positions behind two large balustrades on both aspect, simulating bidders, telephones pressed to their ears, whereas the auctioneer took his place on the lectern and launched the bidding. The first crate contained the Sunnei model, based in 2014 and identified for its vibrant, relaxed vogue with a extremely graphic sensibility. The bidding shortly escalated, and the beginning worth, set at 6 million “fashion dollars”, soared to 112 million.

The second crate was rigorously introduced onto the stage by white-gloved movers geared up with electrical screwdrivers. When they eliminated the lid, the 2 designers appeared—Loris perched on Simone’s shoulders. The beginning bid was 17 vogue {dollars}. The lot went for 95 million to resounding applause. Once the sale was over, the fashions slipped backstage.

Only Messina and Rizzo may have imagined such a situation to bid farewell to their model, carrying their demonstration to its logical conclusion at a time when advertising and marketing and storytelling prevail over the product, and a mercantile society dominates. As their assertion of intent put it, “Fashion is finance, creativity is for sale.”

“More than ever, today’s industry is driven by hidden but powerful dynamics. This performance is not a direct critique, but a hyperbolic theatrical metaphor for this mechanism. The Sunnei auction is intended as both a disruptive artistic act and a conceptual statement—a visual, contradictory staging of the system, where the symbolic defies the concrete and where desire itself is called into question,” they stated.

The picture of designers promoting themselves to the very best bidder is each telling and apt within the present context, the place the large luxurious teams seem ever extra voracious and omnipresent on the worldwide market, whereas younger designers and small impartial labels discover it more and more troublesome to outlive.

This shouldn’t be the primary time Sunnei has challenged the style world. Two years in the past, the label invited the general public to price its present. Over the years, its shows have turn into cult, every time attracting an viewers of connoisseurs, mixing immersive experiences with creative performances.

The two designers have been the primary to stage a present atop the Pirelli skyscraper, beneath Milan’s ring street repainted white for the event, and on the backside of a drained swimming pool. At occasions, they’d their fashions dash in a headlong race, launching them into the group in a jubilant, airborne glide. Most not too long ago, they marked Sunnei’s tenth anniversary with an all-senior solid.