Moschino’s New Creative Directors Once Put Themselves Up for Auction. Now They’re Running the House
The duo behind Sunnei's Christie's auction stunt are now in charge of one of fashion's most irreverent houses. The industry has no idea what to expect, and that is the whole point.
Moschino is hitting the reset button again. Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo are the duo behind the cult Milanese indie label Sunnei, and are now taking over as creative directors. Their first collection drops at Milan Fashion Week this September, and it is easily the most curious appointment of the year.
To understand their vibe, you have to look at their final Sunnei show last September. Instead of a normal runway, they partnered with Christie’s and turned the event into a literal art auction. Models walked out before standing on blocks and an auctioneer sold off the clothing to the audience. For the grand finale, the designers put themselves up for bidding, mock-selling their own creative rights before announcing their real-world exit from the company a few hours later. It was clever, deeply cynical, and showed a total disregard for traditional fashion show formats.
With an anecdote like that, it is clear why the industry is so curious about what comes next. Messina and Rizzo are replacing Adrian Appiolaza, who spent his two and a half years at the house digging into the archives and honouring founder Franco Moschino’s original pop-art irony and illusion gowns. Before Appiolaza, Jeremy Scott spent a whole decade defining Moschino through loud, fast-food-inspired maximalism.
Messina and Rizzo are definitely going to change the look of the clothes, but their eccentric attitude proves they might actually share Moschino’s rebellious DNA. After all, a designer’s personal label doesn’t dictate everything they create, and running an indie brand requires a very different wardrobe than steering a global heritage house. Sunnei’s signature look was built on artsy minimalism, with a lot of heavy denim, thick stripes and oversized, cocooning shapes. Yet, intellectually, the duo matches the house perfectly. In their first official statement, the new directors noted that Moschino should use pop culture as a critical tool rather than just a visual aesthetic. That is a direct nod to founder Franco Moschino’s original philosophy of using fashion to mock the fashion industry itself.
Because of this, the speculation for September is reaching a fever pitch and the fashion crowd is split down the middle. Industry insiders are wondering if the duo will rely too heavily on internet-breaking stunts, like their Spring 2024 Sunnei show where they handed the audience score paddles to rate the collection live, at the expense of actually designing clothes people want to buy. On the other side, critics are questioning the sheer logistics of the timeline. Taking over a huge corporate house in late June and putting out a fully realised debut by September is a notoriously tight turnaround. The rumour mill suggests we might not get a complete brand overhaul right away, but rather a conceptual teaser collection designed to generate hype.
And perhaps the real question for September isn’t whether they understand the brand’s spirit, but how they bridge the visual gap. Sunnei’s low-key, oversized streetwear is the opposite of Moschino’s history of 3D postcard jackets and theatrical evening gowns. The fashion crowd is watching to see how two designers who built their reputation on small-scale indie irony will scale those concepts up for a major house.
Credits:
Images courtesy of Moschino
Words: Roisin Teeling @roisinteeling
Moschino.com
