The essential fashion of Marni, the rebel chic of MSGM

With Milan Fashion Week in full swing, the surprises continue. On Friday, the collections for autumn-winter 2024/25 were the talk of the town. Francesco Risso scored a major coup at Marni, taking the public by surprise with an exhilarating and inventive show. Meanwhile, at MSGM, Massimo Giorgetti shook up the bourgeois wardrobe with zips and vinyl.

For his return to the Milanese catwalk after his stint in Paris last season, and as Marni celebrates its 30th anniversary, Francesco Risso has created a masterful collection in which every piece seemed designed to arouse impulsive desire. Particularly the accessories, with mirrored large-rimmed glasses or clown boots with studs and a stiletto heel, invariably worn by women or men. The clothes were as beautiful to look at as they were to touch, alternating monumental, high-impact outfits with more fitted, delicate ensembles.

The designer says he has wiped the slate clean to rediscover a more authentic, almost childlike creative vein, free from imposed rules and stripped of all artifice. It’s a way of getting closer to nature and the animal kingdom, without falling into a purely primitive discourse, or depriving himself of his experience as a designer. Everything is designed and constructed with precision, starting with primordial forms created with large, linear lines and curves.

To celebrate this return to our roots, the designer imagined a cave made of crumpled white paper, a sort of igloo cave, where men and women wandered along a tortuous path, accompanied by hymns intoned by a choir of vestals in white tunics. The first silhouettes were revealed. A series of black total looks made up of maxi skirts and triangular dresses, the angles of which flared out to the sides with amplitude. Some of the apron-shaped dresses opened at the front to reveal a deep neckline.

They were worn theatrically with long welder’s gloves, in felt or leather, and with majestic fur stoles. The triangle was repeated in mini capes, while some garments took on the protective shape of cocoons. Cloche dresses were also available in leopard-effect fawn fur.

For next winter, Francesco Risso has created a highly tactile collection, playing on the softness of lambskins and the plushness of combed wool jumpsuits and ensembles. Not forgetting the velvety feel of the countless furs, short-haired or long and bushy, that make up the collection via little capes, jackets and other fur-lined jackets, as well as the grainy feel created by the thick strokes of paint thrown over stiffened dresses, blouses and trousers.

Fifth Avenue socialites at MSGM

See catwalk

A change of scenery at MSGM, where we find ourselves catapulted into a chic New York salon. A cocktail was served before the show, with glasses of champagne and petits fours. The perfect welcome to immerse yourself in a collection inspired by Fifth Avenue socialites, the glamorous ‘swans’ described by Truman Capote in the late 1950s.

“I imagined their little nieces today, stealing the dresses of these former aristocratic beauties, but with a dark, gothic touch, as a form of rebellion,” explains creative director Massimo Giorgetti.  “The zip symbolises this element of breaking away from this glittering, cracking world. Throughout the collection, there’s a hint of nostalgia for the past that’s gone, in the face of the future that awaits us,” he says. 

The zip with its coloured ribbon replaced the classic button fastening on a suit jacket or a black flannel shirt adorned with rhinestone swans. It ran diagonally across a woollen coat or acted as a braid on trouser legs.

Vinyl also played spoilsport in this old-style wardrobe, bringing together lace dresses, silver brocade outfits, blouses and white silk dresses with black polka dots. The shiny fabric first appeared in small jackets and then took over the whole dressing room, with coats, jackets, trousers and straight skirts in black, but also in superb amaranth red and emerald green.