This past weekend, Moncler brought its distinct brand of showmanship to Shanghai, China, erecting what it called ‘The City of Genius’ in which a slew of big-name collaborators – among them the fashion designer Rick Owens, former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, and the musicians A$AP Rocky and Willow Smith – presented collections which riffed on the Italian outerwear brand’s history of adventure and innovation.
Part of the ‘Genius’ arm of Moncler, which has drafted numerous co-collaborators to create collections for the label since its advent in February 2018, the accompanying events are akin to enormous immersive exhibitions whereby participants create cinematic ‘worlds’ to display their collections, from foam parties to Space Odyssey-style corridors. In 2023, 10,000 people attended the road-block event at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre, which included a series of vast installations and a performance from Alicia Keys; this year, 8,000 attended in Shanghai, with an estimated global viewership of 57 million people, according to the brand (helped, no doubt, by a much-reposted appearance from Rihanna, there to support partner A$AP Rocky, who presented a collection at the event).
