Geniuses Assemble! Pierpaolo Piccioli, Simone Rocha, and Craig Green Are Just a Few Joining Moncler’s Radical New Designer-Supergroup Strategy
“For Moncler, this is the end of the fashion show,” insists Remo Ruffini, the brand’s owner. Wow. That sounds final. Is the hugely successful Milan down-outerwear specialist, which in November announced the end of its Giambattista Valli–designed Gamme Rouge and Thom Browne–designed Gamme Bleu lines, truly about to turn its well insulated back on the fashion system?
Yes, kind of, but also very much no.
Because . . . KA-POW! Vogue Runway can today reveal Moncler’s recruitment of an eight-strong dream team of designers which, once assembled in Milan on February 20, will comprise surely the most potent and diverse creative force operating under a single label. Think The Avengers of fashion, under the umbrella of Moncler, in a project called Genius.
The undisputed superpower of the group is Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, who will design Genius line 1. Line 2 is called 1952 (effectively Moncler’s main line) and will be curated by Karl Templer. Grenoble, the long-standing Moncler technical ski line designed by Sandro Mandrino, is line 3. Simone Rocha will design line 4, Craig Green line 5, Kei Ninomiya of Noir Kei Ninomiya line 6, and Fragment’s Hiroji Fujiwara line 7. Completing the roster is Francesco Ragazzi, the founder of Palm Angels, and longtime artistic director at Moncler, who will contribute an eighth collection.
The plan, explained Ruffini, is that instead of unveiling new collections every Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer season, from now on Moncler will release a new collection from a different Genius every month. All eight of the new collections will be previewed under one roof in Milan next week, it’s true, but Ruffini stressed that Moncler’s supergroup has been brought together to operate at a much speedier tempo than the traditional rhythms of the business. “A couple of years ago I saw this world is really changing,” said Ruffini: “This world is really much more fast. I don’t think there are seasons anymore, and I don’t think that shows [that look forward] six months’ time really help with the customer. And I said we have to do something new, I wanted to change the model of the business.”
That new model is encapsulated in Moncler’s Genius logo: the silhouette of a building containing eight apartments. Starting in the summer, a different Genius will drop his or her collection at the beginning of each month. Each collection will, for a five-day period, be sold exclusively by one of a group of partner online retailers before going on sale across Moncler’s network of stores and wholesalers. “We have found the very best designers who allow us to speak to different customers and who give us the ability to generate new ideas and new stories every month,” said Ruffini.
Moncler’s new strategy might sound radical—and at first, a little overwhelming—but in a way the brand is going full circle. The year after he purchased Moncler in 2003, Ruffini began introducing collaboration capsules with Junya Watanabe, Nicolas Ghesquière, and Fendi that helped catalyzed the brand’s revival under his watch. Now, like then, said Ruffini, the objective is “to create new energy.” Below, in the words of Ruffini or the designers who have joined Moncler’s Genius project, is a sense of what to expect from some of the (many) new collections to come.
Geniuses...Assemble! Pierpaolo Piccioli, Simone Rocha, and Craig Green Are Just a Few Joining Moncler’s Radical New Designer Supergroup Strategy
Pierpaolo Piccioli (Valentino): womenswear
Piccioli says: “The spirit of the project is something daring: It emphasizes the value of creativity and talent. It is something challenging for me to work with totally different materials and the totally different DNA of the brand. Yes, it was like stretching my legs. The other designers are very interesting. But I said yes at the very beginning before I knew who they were. I’ve known Remo for some time, and I appreciate his way of thinking and managing the company. I felt the way Remo was going to manage this project would be authentic. He asked me to do this project under my own name so [for the collection] I think I had to go back to my personal roots in terms of aesthetics. He gave me total freedom to choose to do men, women, whatever I chose. [Note: Although mostly womenswear, Piccioli has designed one men’s piece that will be available in six variations.] I wanted to experiment with an idea of purity . . . and I wanted to use Moncler as a language to express that idea. For me purity means something that is close to the essence of things. When you solve the complexity of things you arrive at the simplicity. When you take everything out, what you get is more.”
Simone Rocha: womenswear
Rocha says: “I had been talking with Moncler for a few years, actually. And this whole new concept of the group I found particularly interesting: I thought there was a place in it for me . . . being a female designer and interpreting their signature in a feminine way. It felt [like] the right time. What I’ve always done is very structured outerwear incorporating Victorian sleeves or Edwardian ruffles into classic men’s shapes. I’m really excited about the hybridization of this project. I’m an independent London brand whereas Moncler is an historical, active, Italian (but originally French) label. So, this has been a completely new dialogue for me, and I’ve found it very rewarding to be honest; it’s good to take yourself out of yourself sometimes.”
Craig Green: menswear
Ruffini says: “We were looking for a really strong menswear designer and then we realized he was already in the house, Craig has worked with us on his capsule for two seasons now.”
Green says: “What I’ve already found from the capsules is that Moncler gives you free rein; they are genuinely interested in your interpretation. And they don’t mind developing ideas and exploring different options before everything is signed off. Plus, the level of technical know-how—what they are able to do in their factories—has been massively eye-opening for a young, independent London brand like us. Even on a show piece that perhaps nobody would end up wearing, everything is finished impeccably.
At first [for the Genius project] they hinted that they were going to restructure the way Moncler works. Remo was saying he wanted to change the format to fit modern times. We’ve created something that will allow us to approach presenting a collection in a very different way to a show, I just hope it works on the day! Of course, I know Simone from London—she was two years above me at Saint Martins—so I was really happy when they said she was part of this. I’m also particularly interested to see what Noir [Kei Ninomiya] does, but it will be fascinating to see how all of the participating designers interpret the brand.”
Kei Ninomiya (Noir Kei Ninomiya): womenswear
Ninomiya says: “I believe you can only make something new if you take a new approach in creation. That’s why I explore the technical aspects on making things, and my clothes are the result of such exploration. The image of the clothes, such as silhouette, does not come first. Rather, it is the form born out of such technical exploration that matters. . . . Down materials give us the new image and shape of motif. It also comes to be a new silhouette. Creating a collection focused on [such] a particular material as down has been very exciting.”
Hiroshi Fujiwara (Fragment): menswear
Fujiwara says: “I think Moncler has a feature which I never worked on: the special quality of the luxury winterwear. When I stepped into their office, I realized there were so many things I could do with them. With this first collection I tried to mix my taste with the Moncler one. It’s all there in the products. . . .”
Ruffini says: “Hiroshi is the perfect person to speak to the young, urban generation. His passion is music, but he is also very close to the mountains—he loves snowboarding. His mood is very young and Japanese, which I love.”
Karl Templer: womenswear and menswear (1952)
Ruffini says: “This is our main line, which we have given the new name 1952 for the year Moncler was founded. In the past, when we had shows, we never pushed the main line but now we wanted with Genius to present it in a new way, which is why we called Karl. He is the curator. He helps us extract pieces from the collection and give them a new face.”
Templer says: “I first spoke Remo and Francesco a couple of years ago. I felt they were very practical, very real, and I was interested in that reality. I would say my brief is about remixing and recontextualizing hits . . . my job is to help customers get more of an attitude out of the down jacket. While someone like Noir [Kei Ninomiya] is making new shapes—you haven’t seen anything like it before—my interest is in making the old feel new. I’m excited to work with the ‘normal.’ What’s great about Moncler is it has so many feet in tribal camps. Paninari, B-boy, racing car drivers . . . I’m interested in classicism in fashion, and in the way it is reappropriated.”
