That goodwill translated into The City of Genius, which unfolded over a 30,000-square-metre structure that took over the CSSC Pavilion, a historic shipyard on the Huangpu River. The sprawling activation was organised into 10 designer pavilions, or neighbourhoods, each taken over by one of Moncler’s co-creators. Those co-creators had been tasked with creating Moncler collections as well as their showcases, based on the premise that we are all born Genius and uncreative behaviour is learned through growing up.
Think of it as a pumped-up Biennale that lasts only four hours, complete with a racing track installed by Palm Angels, a Jil Sander runway show and a “demountable mountain refuge” installation by Rick Owens (which will be available for purchase). All rounded up, of course, by iteration after iteration of Moncler puffers. The overwhelmingly star-studded designer line-up also included A$AP Rocky, Donald Glover, Willow Smith, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Lulu Li, Edward Enninful, Nigo, as well as Chinese artists Xu Bing, Wing Shya and Leah Dou.
More than 8,000 people attended the event, of which about 100 were foreign press and around 50 international talent flown in by the company especially for the event. Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Shu Qi, Nicholas Tse and Jada Smith were just some of the celebrities taking part in the festivities. The event was live streamed on WeChat, Douyin, RED and Weibo, with 57 million people across the globe having watched it live, according to a company representative.
