PUMP-UP: Sunnei’s founders Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo are aiming to breathe fresh air into retail with their latest, irony-filled move: an inflatable pop-up format.
Focused on celebrating the Milan-based brand’s “It” bags Labauletto and Lacubetto, the pop-up concept originated from the duo’s idea of having a versatile installation, easy to ship and reuse, as it was supposed to travel across the world.
Messina and Rizzo commissioned the project with hip design collective Parasite 2.0, which came up with a lightweight silver shape reminiscent of a stone and caved to feature small niches displaying the colorful accessories. The itinerant installation, appropriately called “Lapietra,” which translates into “the rock” in English, will debut this week at GR8 in Tokyo, before moving to the Univers d’homme et femme store in Manila, Philippines, and Bloc in Hangzhou, China.
Although the pop-up project mainly targets Asia, which is a key market for the brand, the installation will also touch base in the U.S. and Europe, before ending its tour in July in Milan at Sunnei’s first home, the flagship in Via Vela that served as the brand’s headquarters in the early stages of the business.
Sunnei’s inflatable installation.
Courtesy of Sunnei
First introduced in 2019, the Labauletto rectangular leather bag with adjustable shoulder strap retails at $1,077 and comes in classic black and navy as well as popping shades of azure, orange and acid green. Rendered in the same palette, which also includes beige, white and mustard tones, the Lacubetto cubic option is priced $835.
Accessories are one of the bestselling categories for the fashion label, which also offers footwear, sunglasses, hats and a successful series of rubberized earrings to complement its ready-to-wear offering.
As reported, last year, the brand also launched the Sunnei Objects lifestyle line marking a further step in the company’s expansion, which accelerated following Vanguards Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in September 2020. The fund, whose portfolio includes Nanushka, Aeron and the fashion commerce software solution Skala, invested 6 million euros in Sunnei.
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Source: WWD