A full, silvery moon hung over Antonio Marras' show space. The room was studded with screens playing videos of wolves, howling at their own moons or just being their irresistibly beautiful selves. The effect was artfully poignant. In other words, the ideal cue for a Marras collection. The set also offered valuable clarity, given that this particular outing was an even more head-spinning stew of references than usual. Marras managed to draw a line from Annemarie Schwarzenbach, lesbian siren of the Weimar Republic, to Little Red Riding Hood to Joseph Beuys to Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf. A final touch: The models were done up like Rachael, the replicant in Blade Runner. A night on Google could scarcely fill in the gaps. And yet the common threads were always the wolf and the moon, masculine and feminine.
Familiarity with Marras' work leads to the inevitable conviction that he is a frustrated movie director, today's show being a case in point. Each outfit was like a piece of an expanding narrative, light, dark, then light again. Inevitably, there was too much. Marras spills—he can fill a sketchbook with drawings over the course of a single lunch—so a judicious edit is anathema. Here, for instance, the sweet floral embroideries and appliqués that closed the show diffused the impact of the handful of stunning needle-punched outfits that preceded them, particularly the military hybrids.
On the other hand, Marras has been making an earnest effort to keep things more accessible. His favorite silhouette was an A-line. There was charming knitwear and even his own graphic remodel of a track suit. And the shoes were some of the best flats you'll see in a season where flat shoes dominate.
