SUNNEI SS26 — WHEN FASHION GOES UNDER THE HAMMER

SUNNEI didn’t stage a show. It auctioned itself off.

For Spring/Summer 2026, Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo turned Milan Fashion Week into a radical stage: a fictional auction with Christie’s, where nothing was truly for sale—yet everything appeared to be.

Guests, 150 in total, were handed silver scratch cards on arrival, revealing the maximum amount of “fashion dollars” they could bid with. On the podium, Cristiano De Lorenzo, Managing Director of Christie’s Italy, led the sale of surreal lots: first SUNNEI’s monumental logo, then the creative directors themselves.

And the SS26 collection? Present but secondary. Worn by members of the community, not as protagonists but as part of the conceptual architecture. Fashion as language, not product.

The plot twist came right after: Messina and Rizzo announced their resignation through Business of Fashion. Performance became reality. SUNNEI had truly “sold itself,” leaving the lingering question: how free is creativity today, and how much is it just currency?

SUNNEI SS26 was not a collection. It was a theatrical statement, a conceptual will. A cruel game exposing the contradictions of contemporary fashion. Credits: SOUND DESIGN: TOCCI

HAIR: Marco Steri

MAKE-UP: Camilla Romagnoli

SPECIAL THANKS: Christie’s Italia, Cristiano De Lorenzo