Sunnei’s founders take over Moschino — the pair behind the auction show
Their last show was not a show but a staged auction with bidding in “fashion dollars”. They announced their departure a few hours later. Now they get Franco Moschino’s house.
Moschino has named Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo co-creative directors with immediate effect. They succeed Adrian Appiolaza. The decision was announced by parent company Aeffe.
Messina and Rizzo are known as the founders of Sunnei, and the choice looks logical for a house with a heritage of irony and surrealism. Their final Sunnei show, in September 2025, was not a show at all but a staged auction in which the room bid in “fashion dollars”. The designers announced their departure from their own brand a few hours later.
“In the evolution of a fashion house, the ability to balance identity and innovation is fundamental. Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo have the qualities needed to take on that challenge: a contemporary creative vision, a deep cultural sensitivity and the ability to develop relevant and distinctive creative languages,” said Massimo Ferretti, executive chairman of Aeffe S.p.A.
“We have always admired Franco Moschino’s ability to challenge convention through creativity while keeping a clear and consistent voice. That is a rare quality,” Messina and Rizzo said. “Moschino has always embodied that approach as a cultural house with a strong, recognisable and radical point of view, using pop culture as a tool of critique rather than simply as an aesthetic language.”
Sunnei was founded in 2014 as a direct-to-consumer menswear brand, with a women’s line added in 2018. In 2020 the founders sold a controlling stake to the Vanguards group for €6 million — which, as Rizzo has admitted, at times meant more cautious decisions. Both came to design by unusual routes: Messina worked in visual merchandising at Gucci, Rizzo as a digital manager and buyer.
The main question is what state the house is in. The creative change came less than two weeks after Riccardo Bagolin was appointed general manager of Aeffe on 3 June. In May Moschino told shareholders it was insolvent, and at the end of 2025 more than 200 people were made redundant across the group. Bagolin has been tasked with delivering the turnaround alongside chief restructuring officer Stefano Falliti.
The duo’s debut collection will be shown in September 2026 at Milan Fashion Week.