When it comes to celebrating his own birthday, Remo Ruffini admits, “I close my house and don’t want to see anyone!” It’s a completely different story with Moncler, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. This coming Saturday night, Ruffini will host an open-to-the-public birthday event for the company in Milan’s Duomo square, with precisely 1,952 models and performers, all choreographed by Sadeck Waff.
That will serve as the beginning of numerous global Moncler initiatives: Extraordinary Expedition, a travelling exhibition and event, will visit New York, London, Tokyo, and Seoul (with a digital-only Chinese leg). Seven NFTs will be produced as part of a collaboration with the artist Antoni Tudisco.
The Maya down jacket, the signature item of the company, will also be available in 13 different colorways with a special 70th anniversary emblem.
The return to Moncler of seven designers and creatives who have all contributed to the success of the house, however, may be the most intriguing aspect of it all. In order to create the “energy” that Ruffini describes as the brand’s driving force, the company quickly adopted a model of collaboration, beginning with Junya Watanabe, Fendi, and Balenciaga during the Nicolas Ghesquière era, and currently manifested by the collaborative colossus that is its Genius project. It will now catch up with a few of the major characters from that narrative: Pierpaolo Piccioli, Giambattista Valli, Thom Browne, Rick Owens.
