Consuelo Castiglioni's collaborations with artists haven't exactly been shout-it-from-the-rooftop affairs, but they've yielded some interesting little wrinkles in her menswear collections. This season, for instance, the work of three very different outsider artists was duplicated on shirts and tees, the most distinctive being a sort of vandalized floral.
That was just one facet in a Fall collection that was, Castiglioni claimed, full of them. "Every type of man, except an astronaut," she said with a laugh. So, missing a Marni moonman, we got instead a pocket catalog of style, from classic tailoring, to sporting and military references, to a hit of youth culture in a long bomber (like an elongated MA-1 jacket) and shorts over leggings.
Castiglioni's menswear has always paled beside the character she injects into her women's collections. You almost wish that one would transfuse the other, add more sparky style to the utilitarian substance of the Marni man's wardrobe. For Fall, that wish came a little bit true with elements of Marni's Pre-Fall creeping across to the men's line: a fuzzy mohair coat, for instance, or the detachable fur collars that could be used to luxe up any old outfit, especially in bright green mink. In fact, fur was all over the collection, bringing the menswear much more into the Marni fold. A goat coat layered over a beaver vest was the most extreme example, though the Bermudas in goat fur threatened to turn any man who tried them into the Great God Pan.
