Milan Fashion Week: Marni goes back to its roots
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Inside Marni’s show space this morning, the walls pictured a haunting forest of stark trees, their black silhouettes picked out against a sepia background. This seemed like a significant departure - usually, it’s a plain white backdrop - and it was. It was interesting to see Marni take away the colour – save the long, luxurious stoles that opened the show in gold or ruby fox – and strip away the embellishment in a Milan season that has, for the most part, gone nuts for maximalism. It was as if the label was hunkering down to its roots with an all-out demonstration of its signature tailoring – those awkward-in-a-good-way proportions that have become unmistakably Marni, and that have been sprinkled so liberally around certain shows in London and Milan. Take those flattened peplum tops in sturdy Savile Row charcoal worn over loose trousers, those glossy thick bands of beaver on the hems of short shift dresses and coats, the jackets with rounded, drop-shoulders, wide boxy skirt suits and short sleeved, belted coats worn with long fury mittens. All of it classic Marni. As was the footwear – and this is a label that loves a challenging statement shoe. But, as with the clothes, these were restrained. There were flat knee-high boots, in fur or leather, wide Velcro-strapped leather sandals and minimal slip-ons in tan and sometimes toe-capped in gold. The bags, like the flat A4-sized envelopes, also had a modern classic stamp. But it was that other accessory - the fur capelet - worn over forest-printed silks that gave the unmistakable off-kilter elegance that the Marni customer loves about this brand. ‘I wanted something melancholic, romantic; soft with the furs, but graphic with the menswear fabrics,’ said Consuelo Castiglione after her show. When asked, why melancholy? She simply said: ‘Just a feeling.’
