From the Chiasmus archive: MONCLER 'GENIUS COLLECTION'. FALL 2020 READY-TO-WEAR - MILAN FASHION WEEK.

(Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the photographer/company where applicable: Moncler.  From the top:1017 Alyx 9SM, Richard Quinn, Hiroshi Fujiwar, 1952)

Moncler is a fascinating company, founded in 1952, it actually was a French mountaineering outdoor brand which was later bought by the Italian billionaire Remo Ruffini of the Ruffini family.  His father was Gianfranco Ruffini who ran a small clothing company, selling men's wear, dressing his clientèle via the two show rooms in New York throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.  Remo Ruffini, as a shrewed businessman venturing into the world of fashion through his father's imprint, has turned the once bankrupt Moncler around into a multifaceted and multi branded powerhouse, split between major shareholders such as himself, the global asset hedge fund Blackrock Inc and the investment bank Morgan Stanley.  

However, like all future investments of public held companies, expansion is the risk taken for drawing in profits.  Moncler, in that sense, has gone into hyper drive, with the core aspect of the established brand sufficient enough to sell into multinationals markets, Ruffini has spread from 8 to a further range of 12 separate designers, under the Moncler banner titled  the 'Genius Collection', which is essentially a collaborative concept with his chosen fashion designers. Within this mix is Rick Owens, who has also interfused into Ruffini's Moncler with Owen's avant garde overview via a recent simulacrum 'tour' of America concept, with a tour bus and all, to promote his partaking into the Moncler mega-trade of absorbing as many 'X' deals as he can, which in turn sets the stage as a type of theatrical presentation.  According to the press, Ruffini orchestrated the concept within an abandoned factory in Milan for Moncler's Fall 2020 collections.  

It is by its definition, excessive to the fullest, there is an irony and large dashes of hypocrisy splashed about, when catchphrases of social sensibilities seem to be awash within the business structure.  All the while pandering to markets that are now dividing wayward variations at an astounding rate.  Everything looks overstretched and overdone.  Yet, if there's a paycheck at the end of the day.    

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(A.Glass 2020)   

Fall 2023 review soon