Sunnei Adds Lifestyle Offering With ‘Objects’ Collection
Sunnei’s signature stripes are ready to take over customers’ homes.
By introducing the Sunnei Objects collection, the Milanese brand launched by Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo in 2014 has added a lifestyle offering to its apparel and accessories assortment.
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Debuting on Thursday, the first drop of the line includes several items, ranging from striped bed sheets and colorful pillows to Murano glasses and vases. An LP record of the brand’s spring 2021 show soundtrack (including three unreleased tracks), a slip mat, a poster and a puzzle all featuring that same show’s location captured by a drone are also part of the first release.
“Sunnei Objects was created to authentically reflect our daily life, the interests, routines and activities that define it and in which dressing plays only a part,” said Rizzo, revealing that the idea of launching the line originated the very same moment the label was founded. “That’s why we consider this a natural extension of the brand,” he added.
In developing the items, the creative duo leveraged local and internal resources, as they personally met the Murano glass blower that manufactures the glasses and vases; the music featured on the LP was produced in-house and pillows were created using the brand’s ready-to-wear fabrics.
“With this first drop we introduce the various spheres of daily life which will be developed more and more in the future,” added Messina. The designers aim to build on the line by releasing drops twice a year.
“This collection allows us to work on objects that have the potential to accompany our community for a longer period of time than fashion and this is one of the features we intend to focus on with increasing attention,” said Rizzo. “In addition, we intend to develop collaborations, which is a way of working that we have never particularly experienced in clothing, but which we believe could bring interesting results in this category.”
Retailing at prices ranging from 20 euros for the slip mat to 450 euros for the bedding and pillows, the Sunnei Objects collection will be available exclusively on the label’s website and at its flagship in Milan’s Via Vela, which used to house the brand’s offices before the headquarters were relocated to the larger venue of Palazzina Sunnei last year.
To celebrate the launch — but also the return to social gatherings in the city — the designers will host a cocktail at the store and unveil the collection through a special setup on Thursday.
The category expansion marks another step in the growing path of the company, which accelerated following Vanguards Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in September 2020. The fund, whose portfolio includes Nanushka, Aeron and the fashion commerce software solution Skala, invested 6 million euros in Sunnei in a deal that marked a pivotal moment for the designers, empowering them to scale the size of the brand.
As a result, the business was restructured with hires in fields formerly handled by the designers themselves, including financial and administrative ones, with the in-house team doubling and the Palazzina Sunnei recently expanding to include new offices and a showroom.
The financial backing also further boosted the multidisciplinary approach the designers have a penchant for, since Messina and Rizzo are not only experimenting with new product categories, but additionally teased on Instagram that they will soon introduce the Radio Sunnei music streaming project.
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