Rick Owens, A$AP Rocky and Jil Sander are among the 10 designers who showcased collections at fashion brand Moncler’s event The City of Genius during Shanghai Fashion Week.
Part of Moncler’s ongoing Genius project kickstarted by the brand’s CEO Remo Ruffini, the event took place in Shanghai on 19 October, held at a 30,000-square-metre former shipyard, revealed in this video created by Dezeen.
The City of Genius brought together talent from across the creative industries
Creatives from the worlds of design, fashion, music, entertainment, art and technology came together to showcase their collections of alpine-inspired clothing across different pop-up ‘neighbourhoods’ within The City of Genius.
The lineup included Edward Enninful, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Donald Glover, Lulu Li, Nigo with Mercedes-Benz, Palm Angels and Willow Smith, as well as Rick Owens, A$AP Rocky and Jil Sander.
Events and production studio Villa Eugénie collaborated with the designers to create custom installation spaces to showcase each of their collections at this year’s event.
“This show marks the sixth Genius event – we began with three shows in Milan in 2018, then held a digital show during the pandemic in cities like Tokyo, Milan, Shanghai, Seoul, and New York,” Villa Eugénie founder Etienne Russo told Dezeen. “We moved to London in 2023, and now we’re in Shanghai this year,” he added.
“Remo Ruffini’s concept of Moncler Genius emphasises bringing diverse designers together to collaborate within a single brand framework while allowing each to express their own creative vision,” Russo stated.
“Ruffini believes that by inviting multiple designers with distinct backgrounds and aesthetics – such as Hiroshi Fujiwara’s streetwear, Rick Owens’ avant-garde style, and Edward Enninful’s editorial sensibilities – Moncler can reinterpret its DNA from multiple perspectives,” he continued.
Russo described that the space was set up to resemble a city, with the cityscape complete with streets, street signs, traffic lights and other urban elements.
“The city concept served as a unifying umbrella that connected the ten designers,” he said. “Each neighbourhood serves as an immersive environment tailored to reflect the essence of each designer’s collection and message,” said Russo.
“The venue – a former navy yard with striking brutalist architecture – provided a strong, industrial foundation for the showcase,” Russo said.
“Shanghai itself was a powerful inspiration – we wanted to capture the unique energy and identity of the city, especially the iconic modern skyscrapers,” he added.
The installation created for American designer Rick Owens’ collection was centred around a stainless steel structure designed as an off-grid mountain shelter. Here, Owens presented oversized quilted puffers, robes and capes in black, beige and white.
This follows previous collaborations between Owens and Moncler, which have included the creation of a custom tour bus and a steel sleep pod.
American musician A$AP Rocky adapted Moncler’s alpine outerwear style to create a collection of brightly coloured pieces with bold quilting and oversized silhouettes, featuring shoulder, knee and elbow pads, padded vests and helmet-like hats.
For Rocky’s collection, the space was set up like a living room, with silver seating, a custom-made cabinet and wraparound LED screens.
“The process was highly collaborative,” said Russo. “With Lulu Li, who focused on a single coat design repeated several times, we proposed creating her pavilion as a small, mirrored space to reflect the coats in a way that made them appear infinite,” he described.
Meanwhile, Enninful’s futuristic installation space was intended to resemble a frozen weather station, with a collection of all-black pieces created for exposure to extreme weather conditions.
“With Edward Enninful, we created an atmosphere that showcased intense heat, wind, and cold, using the space to simulate a journey through extreme climates,” Russo said.
A race kart track with drivers wearing the collection was the offering of Los Angeles label Palm Angels. Separately, Mercedes-Benz and Japanese fashion designer Nigo collaborated to create a vehicle with a puffer-informed roof.
The Moncler Genius collections presented at The City of Genius event are set to be launched throughout 2024 and 2025.
The Genius initiative was originally launched during Milan Fashion Week in February 2018 when fashion designers including Craig Green and Simone Rocha were tasked with redesigning Moncler’s signature down jacket.
Since then, the 2019 edition saw former Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli create a collection of vibrant puffer full-length evening dresses, while at the 2020 edition, designers such as JW Anderson created fresh takes on the Moncler puffer jacket.
More recently at the 2023 edition, Mercedes-Benz created a puffer-jacket-informed car as its contribution, which was unveiled during London Fashion Week.
The photography is courtesy of Moncler.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Moncler as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.
