Aristotle said long ago: “Great genius is rare without a little madness.” When Moncler’s Remo Ruffini debuted his Genius look in 2018, some in the fashion world thought he, too, had been touched by madness: why else discontinue two hugely successful fashion show formats in favor of an untested runway-less collaboration celebration?
Ruffini’s instinct to reinvent the outerwear brand proved more logical than any expert observer predicted. A year later, Genius expanded, launching a digital version of the platform in 2021, while garnering even more attention and generating more revenue.
Now, after a recent hiatus, Genius is back. Later this month, Moncler will descend on Shanghai on the final night of its fashion week to unveil the “City of Genius,” an event the brand is touting as “an immersive experiential metropolis that will become the epicenter of global creativity.” Like Moncler’s previous large-scale events, this chapter of Genius will feature multiple simultaneous installations, showcasing collections from various cultural heroes, not all of whom are rooted in fashion design. According to a company release, the City of Genius will cover an area of 30,000 square meters.
So who are these heroes? First up is genius newcomer Donald Glover, who will present his installation under the banner of Gilga Farm, a project he described to GQ magazine as “like the Erewhon of culture.”
A$AP Rocky, a unique fashion and musical force, is also making his debut. Another new member of Moncler’s creative superstructure is Willow Smith, who once told Eskume: “I’ve always been interested in all things existential and exotic.” This interest should have interested Smith in the work of the talented Li Lulu, a Zen Buddhist whose multifaceted practices include alien life forms and artificial intelligence glasses.
The final newcomer to the Genius supergroup is no stranger to the Askew masthead this time around: our former editor-in-chief of the UK edition and current Askew consultant, Edward Enninful, will make a surprise debut, promising one of the most anticipated Moncler collaborations ever.
Next up is Nigo, a longtime Genius member who announced the first part of Moncler’s collaboration with Mercedes-Benz in London last year. The Kenzo creative director and streetwear patron saint returns to Shanghai for round two. Two foundational Genius collaborators are also returning; Hiroshi Fujiwara of FRGMT and Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels who have been part of the Ruffini organization since the beginning.
That’s a lot of talent packed into one room, even if that room spans three hectares. But there’s still room for two more heroes. The first is Rick Owens, the second is Jil Sander, with Lucie Meyer and Luc Meyer as creative directors.
A press release from Moncler for tracking this refreshing carnival of creativity states: “City of Genius was inspired by a study in the 1960s that showed that 98% of five-year-olds qualified as geniuses, however, by the time they reach adulthood, this percentage drops to 2% and the limitations of life’s development have diminished the gifts of the mind to some extent.
