In short: Novelty Italy, part of Groupe Novelty, delivered the lighting, sound and structures for Vogue World 2026: Milano, held on 22 September 2026 in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Hired by the show producer, the team installed 855 lighting fixtures, a d&b audiotechnik sound system and an 8-metre truss circle under the dome, working only at night over five shifts.
Technical production for fashion shows is at its most demanding when the runway is a landmark. That was Vogue World 2026: Milano, the fifth edition of Condé Nast's fashion spectacle, which turned the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, between the Duomo and La Scala, into a stage for runway, dance and live music on the opening day of Milan Fashion Week.
Behind the show, streamed live worldwide, was the team at Novelty Italy, the Italian company of Groupe Novelty. Here is what it took to bring a show of this scale into one of Europe's most iconic heritage venues, without touching a single stone.
| Date | Tuesday 22 September 2026, 8 pm, opening day of Milan Fashion Week |
|---|---|
| Venue | Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan (Italy) |
| Audience | Around 500 guests in the Galleria, plus a worldwide YouTube livestream |
| Event type | Five-act fashion show: runway, dance, opera, choir and live music |
| Sector | Fashion and luxury |
| Client | Vogue (Condé Nast), with the show producer as Novelty Italy's direct client |
| Technical production | Novelty Italy (Groupe Novelty): lighting, sound and structures |
| Technical highlights | 855 lighting fixtures · 8 m truss circle flown from the dome · 170,000 kg of ballast · d&b audiotechnik system · Luminex fibre network · 5 night shifts |
Watch the full show in Vogue's official livestream:
Vogue World began in New York in 2022 and has since visited London, Paris and Hollywood. For its fifth edition it chose Milan and a theme close to the city's heart: the relationship between Italian craftsmanship and technology in the age of artificial intelligence.
The result was a five-act show with a cast of more than 360 and Italy's great fashion houses on the Galleria's mosaic floor. Several moments were built to move the live audience and work on camera at the same time:
All proceeds went to the Quarto Oggiaro library in north-west Milan. A project like this needs technology that rises to the story, and never upstages the fashion.
The trade press covered the project too: Digital AV Magazine published a story on Novelty Italy's production at the Galleria.
The finale of Vogue World 2026: Milano, with the full cast on the runway. Photo: Novelty Italy
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a 19th-century shopping arcade with an iron frame and a glass dome, open to the public day and night and protected as heritage. It's not an exhibition hall: nothing can be fixed to the façades, the floor is a historic mosaic and the shops stay open all day.
That shaped every decision. Working closely with the show producer, Novelty Italy had to solve three problems at once: where to hang the lights without touching the architecture, how to deliver sound in a space of stone and glass, and how to build a show this size in a venue that had to return to normal every morning.
The answer was a set of black aluminium structures resting on the small balconies that run along the Galleria. Much of the lighting rig sat on them, blended into the architecture and almost invisible to the audience.
To keep those structures stable without fixings, the team placed 170,000 kg of anti-tip ballast. Engineers calculated the loads balcony by balcony before the build, ensuring safety in a building that leaves no margin for error.
Aluminium structures on the balconies, with lighting blended into the Galleria's architecture. Photo: Novelty Italy
The most visible rigging element was a QX30 truss circle, 8 metres in diameter, flown from the dome with 500 kg motors on 45-metre chains. From the floor, it drew a circle of light right above the central octagon, where the show's key moments took place.
Lifting it to that height called for cranes, aerial work platforms and hoists, in a tight space with the floor fully protected. It's the kind of build we plan through our rigging services.
The 8-metre QX30 truss circle flown from the dome. Photo: Novelty Italy
Because the Galleria never closes, the build happened only at night: from 11 pm to 4 or 5 am, with the space cleared every day before opening. Over five nights, a core build crew of 28 to 30 people and 36 to 40 technicians per night across lighting, sound and structures worked alongside the production's stagehands.
Working this way takes meticulous planning. Every night had a clear goal, and anything not fixed had to be gone before dawn.
The truss circle during the night-time build, with cranes and aerial work platforms. Photo: Novelty Italy
Lighting design was by Ignace D'Haese (ARF&YES), and Novelty Italy supplied, installed and operated the full system: 855 fixtures from Robe, Clay Paky, SGM, Astera, Cameo and Elation, spread across the balcony structures, the central circle and floor level.
The dome lit in blue and the inner façades coloured by LED washes. Photo: Novelty Italy
At a fashion show, event lighting has to work for three audiences at once: guests, broadcast cameras and photographers. So the rig combined power, precision and fill light:
One of the show's red looks on the Galleria's mosaic floor. Photo: Novelty Italy
Everything ran from two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium consoles with wings. With such a long arcade, signal had to travel far: kilometres of fibre with synchronised Luminex systems (GigaCore and LumiNode), LumenRadio Stardust wireless DMX and Swisson splitters.
The Galleria is highly reverberant, and the programme combined operatic voices, a large choir, dance and a pop piano finale. The sound project was led by William Geroli, Novelty Italy's sound project manager. The sound system, entirely d&b audiotechnik, was designed to cover the whole runway with clarity:
At the desks, Yamaha RIVAGE PM5 and PM3 and DiGiCo Quantum 225 and 338, with redundant DSP, a Dante network and QLab for playback. Opera singers used DPA 6066 and 6061 mics; the choir was miked with 8 Schoeps CMC6 and had 102 in-ear monitor bodypacks. Sennheiser and Shure Axient Digital digital wireless microphones completed the system.
A separate rehearsal space with d&b V10P and a Yamaha QL5 let artists prepare without interfering with the build.
The choir on the runway, miked with Schoeps CMC6 and on in-ear monitoring. Photo: Novelty Italy
The show was streamed live on Vogue's official YouTube channel, directed by Becky Garner and produced by Si Fi Productions. For Novelty Italy, that meant light and sound had to work as well in the Galleria as on millions of screens: stable light levels for the cameras, accurate colour on screen and clean audio for the broadcast mix.
If your event includes live streaming, this is something to plan with your technical partner from day one.
For the Novelty Italy team, Vogue World was one of the year's landmark projects. In the words of Augusto Galliano, Novelty Italy's project manager:
"It was one of the most important events we've delivered in 2026, after the Winter Olympics. We achieved this thanks to flawless organisation, internal and external: everyone, from the office and the warehouse to the drivers and the technical teams on site, stayed coordinated every moment of the day and night, never giving up. And then the great satisfaction of watching the show."
Novelty Italy is part of Groupe Novelty, with companies across Europe. For agencies and brands producing in several markets, that means shared technical standards and a local team in each city that knows its venues, regulations and suppliers.
In Milan, that local knowledge made the difference: a team used to heritage venues, night-time access windows and the city's permits, backed by the resources of an international group.
Vogue World 2026: Milano proved that a landmark can become a runway when the technology is designed around it: structures that never touch the building, 855 fixtures woven into the architecture, sound built for reverberation and a night-only build run to the minute.
Planning a fashion show or luxury event in Italy? Tell us about your project and we'll design the event production your brand needs.