Veronica Leoni started working on this collection just days after Moncler’s raucous last-February Genius launch and after-party: ah, the Rick Owens RV, the bratwurst, and the dance floor. That launch coincided with the first discovered case of COVID-19 in Italy and its immediate aftermath. She remembered, “It was the first time we realized how specific our way of working had been, and that the way we were working had to change.”
Reviewing this collection feels changed too: That night last February involved helter-skelter-ing through 10 or so collections in less than one hour—fashion speed dating—which was both fun and efficient but hardly conducive to connection. In contrast, speaking with Leoni on Zoom and looking slowly at these look book images—there’s no particular rush, as due to some calendar vagary the collection has been on sale since January, so this review is more an exercise in completism—is highly conducive to connection. Even when frustratingly shot in black and white, you can see in silhouette and sensual aesthetic pragmatism echoes of Leoni’s previous professional ports of call at Jil Sander and Celine. The delicate minimalism of her tunics and skirts worn with foreshortened knitwear and volumized masculine-template separates plays pleasingly against the decorative contrast of her tight-diamond quilted nylon finishing, a sort of inverse fishnet.