A Genius Development: The New Designers—And Dog—Joining Moncler’s Rapidly Expanding Megastructure
Right now Moncler Genius is the fashion equivalent of, say, Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, or Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar Factory, or Shanghai’s Bund—a project under such rapid and wide-ranging development that every time you glance at it there is something startlingly new on its horizon. Today—boom!—more change: two new guest designers, one new supermodel collaborator, one newly-announced Celine-veteran on the team and, oh yes, a new push into canine couture.
So let’s survey the latest updates to the Genius project, the initiative that one year ago transformed Moncler from a three runway-line fashion house into a fashion high-rise large enough to accommodate eight different designer helmed collections that dropped on a month to month basis.
For its second year Genius will encompass 10 collections, with three new names added to the line-up, and one subtracted. All of the new collections will be revealed at Milan Fashion Week on February 20 in the huge, newly-revived Raccordati Warehouse space. The company has been working with the Mayor of Milan’s office to make the entire installation open to the public on February 24. As Remo Ruffini, Moncler’s president, said on the phone: “We want to invite all of Milan to see what we do. The whole idea of Genius is to have many diverse voices under one roof—to talk to many different generations and groups, and to be inclusive. So it makes sense to open our doors and let people in.”
The first new name added to the Genius lineup is Richard Quinn. The 29-year-old British womenswear designer, whose London show was famously attended by Queen Elizabeth on the very same day that Genius launched last year—was first approached by Ruffini last summer.
“What I love about Richard,” said Ruffini: ”is that when you see the jacket in white, not in print, it is very what I like—very Audrey Hepburn—and then after he has finished shaping his very special volume he applies his very special print and decoration; this gives a very unique energy to the final piece. I think he is special and iconic.”
Speaking from London, Quinn said: “Mr Ruffini came into the studio last year to see how we work—we make everything here—and it was nice that the approach was so personal. Working on the project has been very interesting: bringing the shapes and textiles we are known for into the context of down jackets and technical fastenings—a real crossover. We have learned so much from their techniques as well.”
That sentiment is echoed by Matthew Williams, founder of 1017 ALYX 9SM, who is the second new designer to join team Genius. The 33-year-old Chicago-born Been Trill veteran, whose soulful, fastening-focused, and technically driven menswear has found rapid traction over the last 18 months, said: “Moncler has incredible technical know-how which really complements what we do—just on a very different scale! What they can do with down is amazing.” Ruffini, who also visited the Alyx studio in Ferrara, said: “Streetwear is almost everywhere today—and we already have Francesco Ragazzi’s Palm Angels contribution to Genius, which is very strong—but Matthew’s vision is very particular and different. Very clean. He is presenting men with a different way to dress today.”
To make way for these fresh tenants in the Genius high-rise one designer—Kei Ninomiya—has this season given up his lease. Ruffini said: “Noir, was one of my favorite of the projects. I’ve placed Kei’s designs in my personal archive, because I think it was a very special link between Moncler and the hand-made. But from the beginning when we were talking with Adrian [Joffe] and Kei they wanted it to be just a one year project.”
One designer who is returning—but with a new collaborator working alongside him—is Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli. For his new season Genius No. 1 collection the Roman maestro is teaming up with Addis Ababa-born Liya Kebede, the three-time Vogue cover star, philanthropist, and supermodel. As Ruffini explained: “Liya has been a friend of mine for 10, 12 years. And she is a friend of Pierpaolo, too. He proposed the idea of working with her. She is from Ethiopia and has her own line, Lemlem, which works with traditional weaving artisans from that country. Pierpaolo said: ‘she works with incredible textiles and colors, and mixed with a couture attitude I think this could be very interesting.’ This is the only collection I haven’t seen finished yet, and I’m very excited. Because when you mix cultural influences and ideas you get new energy and a new attitude.”
Yet another fresh extension to the Genius concept is taking place within 1952, the highly wearable Moncler sub-brand. We already knew that the talented menswear designer Sergio Zambon was taking care of one half of the line, but today Moncler announced that its womenswear design director is Veronica Leoni. According to Ruffini, Leoni has been working on the line at Moncler for around a year now—ever since her days as Head of Designer Pre-Collection Womenswear at Celine under Phoebe Philo. “Veronica was at Celine for many years,” said Ruffini. “Her vision is super sophisticated, super useful, and super modern.”
Come February 20, all of the above designers will join Simone Rocha, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Grenoble mastermind Sandro Mandrino, and Francesco Ragazzi to show their collections for the year ahead in the new Genius building. That’s a lot of voices under one roof, but adding to the cacophony will be the howls emanating from another new Genius line: Poldo Dog Couture.
The company first dabbled with a non-Genius, small-scale collaboration with this fledgling, Moncler-staffer-founded Milanese dogwear brand last year, and according to Ruffini: “the sell-through was incredible. We know a lot of people, whatever their generation and wherever they are from, really love their dogs. So we thought, why not?” An exclusively cast group of down-boy and down-girl dog models drawn from various pedigrees—and mongrels, too—will be present on February 20 to walk the Moncler runway.
Thus the Genius concept marches forward in non-stop monthly drops of down-filled, diversely designed, technical-nylon newness. But looking back for a moment, how would Ruffini characterize the changes that his business has undergone over the past year? He said: “Well, we were planning it for two years. Since we launched everything has happened very, very fast. We’ve seen a strong reaction from clients around the world, and in the stores, and in the company. There are some things we have to fine tune, of course, because this is a new strategy in the luxury market. It might be very fast, but it is very much not fast fashion thanks to the quality of the design and the products. What’s most important is that through Genius we are speaking with a much wider range of groups and generations—different clusters in different communities across the world—than we were before. And we are speaking a lot to a younger generation. As for any brand, that represents the future.”
True, he’s not himself an official Moncler Genius. Yet Ruffini’s strategy for the company he acquired in 2003 seems, at the very least, pretty darned smart.
A Genius Development: The New Designers—And Dog—Joining Moncler’s Rapidly Expanding Megastructure
