Primal. Animalistic. Rough. Those are just couple of words that seem to describe Francesco Risso‘s latest Marni collection, but not entirely. Crude. Instinctual. Dada. Presented in a cavernous space located in one of the tunnels sneaking under Milan’s Stazione Centrale, entirely plastered in white paper, the collection itself started with the idea of tabula rasa. To prep for this collection, Risso and his team gave the same white-paper treatment to their studio at Marni headquarters, lining every surface as to make them disappear, in a radical attempt to keep out visual distractions, banning images, moodboards, or any excess of conceptual stimuli. Working without visual references brought to the surface an equally radical design practice. Shapes and volumes were stripped of everything superfluous, and returned to a state of purity, taking away all unneeded information, noise. Pockets, buttons, darts, and any detail that wasn’t necessary to glorify “the soul of the shape” were hidden or “reduced to shadows.” In an extreme attempt to dematerialize the shape itself, surfaces of capes, bell-shaped dresses and ball-coats were almost concealed under thick glazed layers of curly gestural paint. The textures of furry blousons were gelled and then hand painted to achieve a spiky, feathery finish; the surface of an egg-shaped parka in black flocked velvet was covered in printed scribbles as if to erase it with frantic urge, “Erased De Kooning Drawing” by Robert Rauschenberg kind of way. This collection was one of the most intense moments of Milan Fashion Week. But one question prevails: why was Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) in the audience? An unnecessary stimulus that made you question the provocative undertone of this Marni show.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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