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.