BEAUTY: Clothing--Marni

Francesco Risso has been Creative Director of Marni since 2016 and he has thoroughly dedicated his work to a certain quirky, freewheeling, artistic expression that makes one give pause. So for this Fall Winter  '25-'26 collection shown at Marni headquarters, he incorporated imagery from his collaboration with the Nigerian artists Olaolu Slawn and Soldier Boyfriend. What started as talk over aperitifs in London evolved into The Pink Sun, a month-long residency where the three artists shared a studio, riffing on each other's works, inspiring and encouraging. "It was a moment of such liberation and freedom, we were like a pack of happy wolves. We really dared to dream." The name of the collection is The Pink Sun, and I am showing men's looks here but take a look at the video; the womenswear is quite special too.

Indeed, there is a wolf motif from their collaboration that shows up on a suit. The playfulness of gigantic fur elements (more wolfy-ness) adds a skewed, surreal touch. But there is something else deeper in this eccentric, visceral presentation, with live music by Dev Hynes (Blood Orange, previously here),... and it plays right into my mood and thinking about the state of not only my own country in peril but the world in general. Like the Dadaists who met World War I with a spiritual defiance ("I will see your insanity and raise you..."), these days I am feeling that I need to be more of who I am and what I value and love. I know many might say, well, this Marni collection is just some clothes,... but no, it is more than that. It is a statement. A bold statement. A vital statement. It is saying, "You, right-wing, oppressive elements of the world, can try to destroy a lot of what the world has built, but you can't take away my spirit, my essence. You can't take away what I love and value. Art and poetry will die only with the last human being. So I will continue to be myself with THE VOLLUME TURNED UP. So what are you going to do? Are you going to come for me, round me up, put me in a camp? Do it. I'll make it easy for you to find me...I'll be the one wearing a yellow sweater with a huge fur collar. And by the way...f**k you."

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
--Albert Camus

Francesco Risso with Olaolu Slawn and Soldier Boyfriend

https://www.marni.com/

Currently listening to...

...two subversive tracks by Blood Orange. Born Devonté Hynes in the USA but raised in England, the multi-talented Blood Orange (he is also a producer, writer and graphic artist making illustrated novels) has worked with The Chemical Brothers and is the opening act for the current Florence + the Machine tour. His music has an alternative, electronic, kind-of-Massive Attack-feel to it. One could be tempted to draw certain conclusions about the music based on what Blood Orange looks like, but those conclusions might be wrong...

"Champagne Coast" is not at all what it first appears to be. I love music that seems slightly "off," and there is something strange going on with the sensibility of this piece. If one were not paying attention, one could write it off as a simple, fluffy, and forgettable R&B tune (even the video reads as a one-dimensional collage of also-ran clichés from second-rate urban videos). But there is something moody and introspective about this piece... notice the sparse instrumentation, the haunting quality of the quivering vocals, the atmospheric reverb, and the oddness of the melody itself. Add this to the inelegant, candid plea to "Come to my bedroom" sung in a rueful falsetto, and the end result is a sort of urban ambient/ trance music... (P.S. Clock Opera has done an awesome remix of this track.)

And "Sutphin Boulevard," with its visual references to the underground drag queen ballroom culture and vogueing (the abstract lyrics begin "Mother, see you in the May when I'm a boy"), exhibits all the qualities of the previous song. Anyone who looks beyond Top 40 will immediately sense that there is more happening here than initially perceived on the surface.

http://bloodorangeforever.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blood-Orange/141094315950968