MILAN – Sunnei’s show in collaboration with auction house Christie’s — conceived as a mock auction — was in fact the last one with founders Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina at the helm. Friday afternoon, the pair symbolically put up for auction both themselves and the brand. Sardonic, dry, left-of-centre, and amusing in a way that makes you think: the gesture was a very “Sunnei” way of signalling that they are stepping down, ready to explore new ventures.
But Rizzo and Messina did not say anything openly at the event. They are doing so now, faithful to a very personal, idiosyncratic way of running business and handling communication that has made them darlings of the fashion intelligentsia while remaining outsiders to the Milanese scene.
“Everything we do is spontaneous, uncomplicated and comes from the guts” Rizzo and Messina said, calling from the car the night before the event, clearly emotional. “We both thought it was the right moment to turn the page. We just know that when our minds align on a feeling, we have to act. We’re slow burners, constantly questioning ourselves, but after ten years of Sunnei we just knew we needed new adventures. This is a decision that we took quietly: we feel solid, calm, aware.”
“Sunnei is the organism we have created, but it is autonomous from us. It can further grow by itself: the team is just wonderful,” Rizzo said.
Rizzo and Messina founded Sunnei in 2014 — straight after university, untrained as designers but full of ideas, noticing that truly new brands were missing in Italy (they still are, to an extent). They immediately started attracting an off-beat, trans-generational fanbase drawn to their singular “kindergarten for adults” aesthetic.
Wary of the fashion game, the pair never took part in any young designer contest, and stubbornly steer away from any fashion clique acquaintances (to the point of being considered antipatici by some in the local fashion milieu).
In September 2020, a €6 million investment into the label was made from Vanguards, the fashion and lifestyle fund backed by Hungary’s Export-Import bank and co-founded by Nanushka chief executive Peter Baldaszti. The cash injection gave Sunnei room to grow.
They solidified their status with unprecedented events, through which small budgets became viral results, like crowdsurfing models or a fashion contest with outfits ranked live by the audience. The brand expanded beyond fashion, launching an online radio station, home objects, cafe and more.
The designers declined to comment on what they planned to do with their remaining stake in the brand.
“Ideas is what we are quite good at” say Loris and Simone, not giving any hint at any future plans because “We don’t have any, but here we are ready to take on any challenge that comes our way”.
Ideas are what Messina and Rizzo could actually provide to brands big and small: their unique mixture of dadaism and naivety belies acute minds and a refreshing ability to deliver a message with remarkable unpretentiousness. Messina and Rizzo are agents provocateurs hiding as funny guys next door. More than their youthful aspect would suggest, they have a clear vision for everything that falls into their area of interest, which is indeed quite expansive.
An idiosyncratic approach to business — doing things the wrong way but in ways that attract attention (and customers), is Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina’s signature. Considering the current state of the fashion-sphere, it’s an approach that could be widely fitting: the two are good at skipping cynicism in favour of amusing authenticity. “Our idea, in a nutshell, is that fashion can be intelligent, and entice good feeling” they conclude. That’s a good plan, for business and otherwise.