I wanted to clean up. Make a fresh, light collection, said Consuelo Castiglione of her Marni show.
And she did just that. It was as if shed spring-cleaned the vision taken away the layers, reduced the number of fabrics, pushed back the quirkiness - and in so doing, got to the essence of Marni.
A white dress said it all simple but artfully cut so as to make it no ordinary white dress; apparently plain from the front then standing away from the body in gathers at the back.
The Marni-isms were there from the off, in the riot of optical checks, inspired, she said, by Anni Albers, the German-American textile and printmaker of the Bauhaus period but the silhouettes were spare: a neat belted coat, a skirt that sprayed outwards below the knee and simple tops with wide sleeves. The Marni eccentricity focused exclusively on the shoes wooden platforms with a curving silver heel that resembled sculpture.
Aside from the three looks emblazoned with large, childlike florals (but again in stringent shapes), the collection in aqua, grey, orange, black and white delivered Marni in its purest form. Perfectly chiming with the seasons big message: simple looks strong.
