BEAUTY: Clothing--Antonio Marras

Antonio Marras is quite a talented man, driven to express his ideas in many forms. As well as fashion, Marras is an accomplished artist with a current show at La Triennale di Milano called “Antonio Marras: Nulla Dies Sine Linea” (translated as “Not One Day Without a Line”) featuring paintings, drawings, ready-mades, and assemblages. The title clearly speaks to his near-visceral need to create. So this was a perfect space to show not only his Fall-Winter '17-'18 menswear collection but also his women's line as well. Inside the gallery were a variety of actors, dancers, mimes, and of course models all milling about the space. There was a towering bearded woman in a multi-layered skirt knitting and reciting a poem.

But there was a runway presentation as well, and the clothes, once out of their artistic surroundings, were equally as fascinating and engaging. Marras said of the collection, "I was thinking of a haunted castle in the rainy, foggy Scottish Highlands, full of ghosts and arcane presences swirling around as in a nightmare, or in a dream, as you prefer!" And what a dream: a parade of ghosts, mostly soldiers who died in or around said castle from the days or Rob Roy to WW I doughboys haunted the catwalk. The historical references were embellished with beautiful embroideries, appliqués, patchwork and intarsia. I can't help but be completely charmed and smitten with this collection, not only for its performance art presentation, but because the collection itself is so sweeping, so dashing, so dreamy and plays into my enduring love for New Romance.

https://www.antoniomarras.com/