SUNNEI’S TAKE ON THE PHYGITAL, SUSTAINABLE FASHION SHOW? ACTIVATED CITYSCAPE > BUILT SPACE
Photo Nicolo Panzeri, Courtesy of 2050+
7 mar 2022, for frame
Location
Porta Romana, 20135 Milano MI, Italy
Design
Brand
Production
Sunnei AW22’s outdoor show took place on a street in Porta Romana – a Milan district with an industrial past and future cultural ambition.
Key features
The Sunnei show kicked off with the morning release of architectural set drawings on the Instagram account of 2050+, the agency responsible for its design and curation. A nod to a movie set, the runway’s stage was a two-tier tribune, running 60 m in length. Overhead, a bridge structure was installed to support cranes, balloons and grip clouds – show props. The set not only accommodated guests but invited them to participate in a staged cinematic act, with an announcement to set their phone's camera on its slow-motion setting.
A taxi arrived on one end of the street. The show began, and the narrow strip of road between the construction and an industrial building turned into a runway quite literally: the opening model was running. Taxis continued to ‘drop off’ the models, and techno music soundtrack evoked the sense of being within an an analogue computer game. The show ended abruptly, with the final model reaching the end of the path. Guests moved away. The structure was dismantled: game over.
Frame's take
With the pre-show publishing of the architectural drawings on its Instagram account, 2050+ demonstrated a revolutionary approach to event communication. What’s more, the move made them an active stakeholder in building the virtual fashion show structure. With fashion moving from simply offering commercial goods to cultural entertainment, partnering architectural and design companies are becoming an essential touchpoint in the brand universe. Their Instagram accounts, for example, can become platforms to experience fashion spaces from a new point of view.
In an attempt to demonstrate the pace of the ever-moving fashion industry, 2050+ created a temporary cinematic stage for analogue virtuality in Milan’s historical city context. As a result, Sunnei was the clearest example of the modern fashion show – phygital, sustainable, and incredibly cool – within the AW22 Milan Fashion Week.