Flanked by blazing torches, the frenzied hoards clamoring today for entry into the 10 spaces within the Moncler Genius Building suggested that hell had gained three additional circles at Milan Fashion Week.
However, while it was an experience I don’t care to repeat, what lay beyond the various black curtained spaces somehow managed to remain un-eclipsed. Give or take.
Today in Milan saw the culmination of the label’s three-season Genius Project. Fall ’19 bumped up the numbers to include red-hot emerging designers Richard Quinn (whose fall ’18 show was attended by HM The Queen — you couldn’t make it up) and Matthew Williams’ ALYX line (Williams is a former creative director for Kanye West and Lady Gaga).
Quinn reimagined the classic Moncler quilting as thigh-high puffa boots, among other things, in technicolor stripes, polka dots, ’60s florals and animal prints. The designer creates his own prints in his south east London studio.
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Williams’ footwear offering featured drawstring rubber boots with scuba padded cuffs in keeping with his label’s utilitarian aesthetic.
More established names within Remo Ruffini’s “collective” include Pierpaolo Piccioli who showed quilted crinolines, Simone Rocha, whose curtain FN didn’t manage to penetrate but is reliably informed featured a romantic woodland set along with platform boots, and Craig Green, who eschewed actual models for Ikea-style flatpack outfits displayed on revolving panels suspended from the ceiling.
The Moncler Genius Building will open to the general public on Feb. 24. Expect further (vaguely) organized chaos. But expect also to be wowed with the creativity within.
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