MILAN, Italy – At first glance, the Spring/ Summer 2026 collection from Sunnei’s Simone Messina and Loris Rizzo had a strong and severe vibe to it. The Christie’s rostrum; the wooden seating; the clustered setting; the latter—a first for the brand.
However, as the notes explained when handed out to editors and industry insiders alike, this lineup was galvanised by a deep sense of reckoning: fashion’s global agenda prompted them to consider the peculiar nature of creativity’s power dynamics.
By subverting the conventional format of the runway and partnering with the auction house (where nothing was for sale), the Italian brand brought a mise-en-scène to the audience with a performance (joined by Cristiano De Lorenzo, Managing Director of Christie’s Italy) and a slew of characters who wore this season’s clothing with a distinct identity.
How was this whole vibe embodied? How does it show itself? Messina and Rizzo’s answer to that question boiled down to this: “fashion is finance, and creativity is for sale,” the notes say, adding that, “Sunnei’s auction is at once artistic disruption and conceptual statement, where suspended contradictions of the system are staged and the symbolic challenges the concrete.”
In a complex world, who doesn’t want some beautiful things that come with utmost reassurance? But on the other hand, how nice, how nice if that beauty comes in a fabrication that can be bought at any price, being mindful of the weight of the market’s saturation in an age shaped by downturns? It’s a no-brainer that we live in an unprecedented time, wanting no-brainer solutions that reflect on consumer choices to desire no-brainer offerings.
Not that there were (at least, from what we could see) some fussy options here. A neutral two-piece, for instance, winked at traditional workwear. But that had to do with the casual inflection of this presentation rather than with any codes of the clothes themselves. They were most-of-the-fact items present, but the impression of these clothes could be that they were meant to be worn in a wishful way: easily, without fuss, and ready to fight the world’s socioeconomic fight.
The final bow? None. In fact, Nìnot long after the show had taken place, in a press note dispatched to insiders, the duo announced their departure from the brand. A clear sign of the critical climate of our times.
by Chidozie Obasi