How Is BOSS Bringing Tailoring to the Stage at La Biennale di Venezia?

How can fashion move beyond the runway and become part of a live artistic experience? At La Biennale di Venezia, BOSS is answering that question through a new collaboration with Stuttgart-based international dance company WINNDance.

The partnership marks an important moment in BOSS’s ongoing commitment to supporting cultural expression, with the brand presenting Scirocco: Death in Venice – Bridge of Sighs at the historic Teatro Malibran. The production features an ensemble of internationally renowned ballet dancers, all over 40, performing in exclusive BOSS-designed costumes.

BOSS Meets Contemporary Dance

Rather than simply creating costumes for the dancers, BOSS approached the collaboration by rethinking how tailoring can work within movement.

Drawing on archival silhouettes, contemporary performance fabrics and the brand’s tailoring expertise, the BOSS garments were developed in close dialogue with WINNDance. Patterns and fabrics were adapted to accommodate the physical demands of choreography, allowing the clothing to become part of the movement and storytelling.

The result is a dialogue between fashion and dance, where tailoring is not simply worn by the performers but actively contributes to the visual identity of the production.

Celebrating Experience and Individuality

The collaboration also reflects a shared philosophy between BOSS and WINNDance. Founded by former principal dancers Marijn Rademaker and Slava Tutukin, WINNDance brings together celebrated ballet dancers over the age of 40.

Rather than looking back at their distinguished careers, the production places the dancers within a contemporary artistic context, highlighting their depth, presence and interpretative experience.

This focus on individuality and maturity closely connects with BOSS’s “Be Your Own BOSS” philosophy, which celebrates confidence, purpose and creative independence.

“Maturity is a value. It is not a limit anymore. This collaboration reflects BOSS’s ‘Be Your Own BOSS’ philosophy, celebrating individuality, purpose, and creative independence,” says Marco Falcioni, Creative Director of HUGO BOSS.

Fashion, Dance and the Story of Venice

Inspired by Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, the multidisciplinary production brings together choreography, film, music, lighting and costume. Choreographic works by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús and Rainer Behr are connected through films by Javier De Frutos and an overarching concept by Ira Goldbecher, Marijn Rademaker and Slava Tutukin.

The performance concludes with the world premiere of John Neumeier’s Bridge of Sighs, inspired by Venice’s historic bridge, the many dimensions of love and the dark mystery of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music.

For BOSS, the collaboration demonstrates how modern tailoring can move into new creative territory – from the runway to the stage, and from clothing to an integral part of artistic expression.