“Italian fashion is a bit stale,” says the Milan-based designer Loris Messina, referring to what is often seen as a dearth of young talent in his country. But with his almost-two-year-old men’s wear brand, Sunnei, Messina and his co-designer, Simon Rizzo, are seeking to change all that.


Embodying the Italian ideal of “Sprezzatura” — an art-historical term that has been adapted by men’s style aficionados to represent a fleeting state of “effortless cool” — Sunnei reimagines classic men’s wear with an eye toward the street. Although their designs are decidedly youthful, Messina and Rizzo claim they aren’t driven by trends, nor is their clothing disposable. From the outset, the designers decided to produce the entirety of their collection in collaboration with old-school Italian factories, experimenting with various dyeing techniques and hard-to-find fabrics. “We were interested in creating an extremely high-quality product,” Rizzo says of their decision to manufacture their garments exclusively in Italy’s Veneto region. “Sometimes the factories don’t really understand our vision. Our approach is different than what they are used to and we ask a lot of questions. We focus very hard on details, and we are extremely picky.”


That difficulty — of communicating their preferences to Italy’s traditional manufacturers — speaks to Sunnei’s nuanced manipulation of time-honored men’s wear designs. For fall/winter, a classic button-up barn jacket is modernized with higher armholes; tapered denim pants have a slight drop crotch and exposed buttons. A one-piece pilot suit is realized in a playful navy corduroy. Despite their penchant for subtle experimentation, Messina and Rizzo still ground Sunnei in the classic tropes of men’s wear, such as tailored suiting and streamlined sportswear. When asked about their favorite piece from their fall/winter collection, both agree that an oversize coat with large patch pockets was the clear standout. “It represents our way of remaking a classic garment for a man’s closet,” says Messina.


A lookbook for the designer’s most recent collection, spring/summer 2016, featured sharply tailored looks made of Cordura, denim and chambray treated with corrosion dips paired with gray Nike Shox — no doubt a nod to normcore. In the meantime, Messina and Rizzo continue to search for inspiration beyond the clichés of “la dolce vita.” As Rizzo puts it: “We are attracted by singular personalities that shine through the monotony.”