Marni's collection is like an indie music label in the days when such a notion actually meant something. When Consuelo Castiglioni settled on sportswear before it got too technical, as the soul of her new collection, she opened the door to another of her quixotic trawls through a lo-fi past, the kind of time zone where boys bared pale legs and paired sandals with thick woolen socks. But where such looks have occasionally been a little bit bloodless, this time she anchored the line with sturdy outerwear (particularly a spectacular pair of parkas) and solid footwear, very much in the spirit of her working man's wardrobe for Fall. Her alt-sportswear theme came through in what could pass for color-blocked workout wear. But alongside all that, she also indulged the connoisseur of the Marni shirt with worn-in fabric mixes (a knit collar on striped cotton, checked linen with jersey sleeves) and some very graphic prints that perfectly captured the idea of "future vintage" that was floating round Milan. Marni has changed from a well-kept secret among like-minded aesthetes to a label followed for its own sake by sophisticated women. The label launched its first menswear line in Fall 2007, but still looks for a proper clientèle. The recent flop of the capsule collection for H&M won't help. Many H&M stores around the world still display some Marni men's shirts that desperately remain unsold.
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