Remo Ruffini is on a roll. The Italian billionaire businessman and chief executive of Moncler kicked off a revolutionary new way of presenting Moncler one year ago when he introduced Moncler Genius—a collective of eight different designers curating their own version and interpretation of the brand as seen in eight different collections dropped at different months throughout the year. It was a success. It was one house, but expressed through different voices. For fall/winter 2019, the Moncler Genius paradigm has evolved, welcoming new designers the likes of Matthew Williams from 1017 ALYX 9SM and Richard Quinn into its stable of creative thinkers.
For the full report on the Moncler fall/winter 2019 collection, listen to the audio review below. Simply click on ‘listen in browser’ for a podcast-like experience as you scroll through the gallery of images above.
10-word review: Packed to the rafters. Shooting flames outside. Hot collections inside.
Designers: The Moncler Genius collective for fall/winter 2019 consists of Pierpaolo Piccioli, Sergio Zambon and Veronica Leoni for 2 Moncler 1952; Sandro Mandrino for 3 Moncler Grenoble, Simone Rocha, Craig Green, Matthew Williams of 1017 ALYX 9SM, Richard Quinn, Fragment's Hiroshi Fujiwara, and Palm Angels' Francesco Ragazzi.
Favourite collection: The traffic leading up to the Moncler Genius presentation—held at the vaults of an old train station north of Milano Centrale—was so bad, two dog walkers bypassed our taxi on their nightly stroll in the space of just three minutes. By the time a third dog walker swung by, I decided enough was enough, and got out of the cab to walk the remaining kilometre. When we arrived at the location, it wasn't just a fashion presentation, it was a full-blown street festival with shooting flame throwers, screaming Korean girls (some Korean star had just arrived; must be why the traffic was so chaotic), and what felt like the entire fashion industry (and their plus ones) all sandwiched into a little side street adjacent to the venue.
Amidst all the crazy, I managed to squeeze into the men's collections before hitting up some of the women's presentations—it was impossible to see all 12 rooms. And while the Moncler outfits on dogs were super cute (Paldo Dog Couture), and Piccioli continues to blow our collective minds with what he can create with puffer down material, it was the Palm Angels room by Francesco Ragazzi that gets my vote. In continuing the theme of fashion as art from last season, seven male models were fully covered in puffer down jumpsuits (each model wearing different metallic iterations of the same design) with their back facing the audience. Along the walls, there were photographs of the same models posed in various positions on the streets of Milan. Then, the room lights dimmed, a timer on the back wall counted down from 10, and when the timer reached zero, the lights returned and the models were sprayed with bright paint from jets hanging from the ceiling. The message was clear: Moncler jackets are not just functional, they are also fashionable and definitely fun.
Favourite accessory: A toss up between the oversized sling bags offered at 2 Moncler 1952 by Valextra and the black caps by Matthew Williams at Alyx with layered mesh and ripstop neck and ear flaps. The former is bold and boujie, the latter is cult and cool. Take your pick.
