Before lockdown started, Loris Messina and
Simone Rizzo were supposed to move in their newly-bought building, Casa Sunnei.
Not being able to move in, and stuck quarantining home, the duo started
reflecting on what they could do to move forward, at a slower pace.
“During the lockdown, I realized we were moving at a pace that was too fast
- we were stuck in a loop,” said Rizzo. “This is why we decided to come up with
something a bit different this season.”
The duo already had the idea in mind to
change their approach and relationship with their wholesalers, and so they
thought that if they wouldn’t be able to work on their collections the
old-fashioned kind of way, then they would develop and present two different
aspects that would revolutionize the way things are presented digitally.
The first of the two is Canvas, a platform that would allow buyers to
customize garments from their collections. Presenting their silhouettes of
basics, literally a blank slate for the buyers, Rizzo and Messina made
available a series of customizable options on the platform ranging from style,
fabric, colours, accessories.
“It was a kind of reverse approach - we put our tools to support the
creativity of buyers who no longer have to come to showrooms to choose in such
a mechanic way but can choose the garments that work best for them,” they
explained.
The duo has made this approach available
only for a selected number of stores, thirty to be exact, which will be
revealed in due time. The pieces chosen by the buyers will be presented during
an exclusive event at the selected store.
“It’s somewhat of a provocation. Buyers have always wanted to put their own
stamp in collections that were not designed by them. I believe that in the 90s
there was much more choice, support, customization instead now it's all the
same as there is a problem of online diversification. With Canvas, we wanted to
create something that would exclusively be found in each store and would also
be something new and unique for Sunnei,” Rizzo reiterates.
The other asset instead, was an experimental, 3D video
presented on Camera Della Moda’s site. Teased a week ago on billboards across
Milan, the duo and their team presented their collection by using CGI to animate
their characters wearing all of the latest Sunnei pieces, many of which are
part of the Canvas experience, dancing the macarena.
This is however only beginning for the Milanese duo, whom once they’ll be able
to finally move into their newly-acquired home office plans to use as a mecca
of creativity, a place to reunite all of their friends, creative collaborators
and family. An exciting initiative after many months of darkness.