Chrome Schläppi Obsession mannequin with arms raised against a black wall lit by white light strips

The Obsession with Schläppi

BONAVERI MILANO, 22 SEPTEMBER 2026

To celebrate Milan Fashion Week, we transformed our Bonaveri Milano showroom with our latest installation, ‘The Obsession with Schläppi’. Obsession, created by Artistic Director Emma Davidge in 2020, is the youngest collection in the Schläppi family. As you enter the showroom, an original Loisir mannequin from the Schläppi archives greets you. At the start of the design process, Davidge pinned images of this iconic Loisir mannequin to her studio wall. The Schläppi DNA stems from these iconic mannequins, created in 1967 by Italian artist Lorenzo Piemonti.

Mannequins in white and black gowns posed on lit steps beneath the Bonaveri sign — ‘The *Obsession* with Schläppi’
Milan Fashion Week, Bonaveri Milano 2026

Mannequin with curly hair and sunglasses in a white draped gown against a grey wall — ‘The *Obsession* with Schläppi’
Milan Fashion Week, Bonaveri Milano 2026

Piemonti was designing during the ‘Youthquake’ movement, so the Obsession Collection stepped forward by a decade, arriving at the heart of 1970s disco culture. The collection’s design moves from “Moon Girl” to “Disco Royalty”. The metallic finishes and chainmail popularised in 1967 by designers such as Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin didn’t disappear; they evolved. At Studio 54, that space-age metallic look was translated into fluid Halston dresses that gleamed under the strobe lights.

The Bonaveri Milano showroom: chrome mannequins on a round plinth around a red gown, a white mannequin in front

“When I think of Schläppi, I think of Loisir. Created in 1967, Loisir broke the mould and captured the ‘youthquake’ movement like no other.”
Emma Davidge, Artistic Director

Chrome mannequins on a round mirrored plinth around a red Halston-inspired gown

Close-up of a chrome mannequin's face beside red draped fabric

The collection begins with four iconic women. During the research stages, the same themes kept recurring: Halston and Studio 54. When you put Diana Ross, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall and Pat Cleveland in the same room as Halston, you aren’t just looking at a guest list; you are looking at the architects of Disco Culture’s visual language. This group of women were the “Royal Court” of Studio 54. Halston understood that his clothes didn’t just need to look good on a runway; they needed to look good under a strobe light. Pat and Jerry were the “front line” models who showed how the clothes moved. Diana and Grace were the aspirational stars who showed how the clothes came alive in the wild.

Chrome mannequin with one arm raised to its head, a red gown and light strips behind

Davidge incorporated these women, their movement, and theatrical poses into the collection, maintaining the Schläppi DNA through Piemonti’s distinctive protruding neck and elongated limbs, while making the bodies more contemporary and accessible for modern-day fashion. She also integrated the sweetness of the Loisir face, transforming her profile into a new era.

Two mannequins on a round plinth, one in white and one in black, with curly and blonde wigs

Two mannequins with curly wigs in white and black in front of archive photographs

A deeper dive into the Halston archives emerged with three distinctive codes that ran parallel to the Schläppi and Bonaveri house codes: The colour Red, the use of mirror surfaces, and model diversity. Davidge then blended these codes and prepared the art direction for the latest photoshoot. The shoot is divided into two halves. The first half taps into the codes of mirror and the colour Red: For Halston, it was the iconic, minimalist aesthetic of his Olympic Towers studio in New York, alongside his use of “Vermillion Red”, a colour which Halston claimed as his own; for Schläppi, it is the chromed finish used on the iconic Loisir collection in 1967, a trend emerging again in the industry, and layering “Bonaveri Red” through the campaign, an historic colour in Ferrara, the hometown of the Bonaveri family.

Chrome mannequin seen from behind in a red draped one-shoulder dress, white light strips beyond

The second shoot celebrates model diversity. The 1973 Battle of Versailles fashion show marked a pivotal moment in fashion history, not only for the clothing but also for its groundbreaking representation. Halston, alongside four other American designers, brought a diverse array of models to France, significantly altering the industry’s standards of beauty. Of the 36 models the American delegation took to Paris, 11 were Black women. This was an unprecedented ratio for the time, particularly in a high-fashion setting. Halston was a key advocate of this diversity, often selecting models who challenged the traditional “model” mould. For Bonaveri, this has been a house code since the early 1970s, when Romano Bonaveri created his first collection of diverse mannequins. It remains at the core of the company today.

The clothing worn by the mannequins was recreated in the company’s atelier, inspired by archival Halston “Grecian Goddess” collections, using Halston’s iconic silk-draped jersey. It is presented in Bonaveri’s brand colours, black, white, and red, bringing the storytelling full circle.

Mannequin in a white one-shoulder dress and sunglasses with one arm raised, framed by light strips

The installation will run until February 2027.
To make an appointment to see the collection, please contact the showroom:

Bonaveri Milano
Via Morimondo, 25a
20143 Milano, Italy

Phone: +39 02 36736030
Email: info@bonaverimilano.com

Mannequin in a flowing red dress against a red background: view the campaign — View the campaign

Schläppi 8000 Obsession mannequin on a white background: view the collection — View the campaign