Antonio Marras' references are always quite layered, much like the collages he creates in his sketchbook each season. For Pre-Fall, he began with the late Swiss artist Gret Lutz Stemmler, whom he met in Gallura, a region of northern Sardinia where she settled in 1963. "A slice of paradise surrounded by nature," is how Marras described it in the show notes. To honor his friend Stemmler, who passed away in 2012, Marras brought together the artist's Swiss heritage and Italian life. The storybook heroine Heidi, as well as her nemesis, Fräulein Rottenmeier, became characters in his collection.
The work was mostly grounded in mid-century silhouettes, with ornate embroideries and prints layered on to give the collection a rich feeling. Panels of carpetbag tapestry formed the sleeves of a rounded-shoulder coat in loden wool, which was finished off with vintage leather buttons in that same distinctive green. Neutral tweed pieces were embroidered with vibrant pink rosettes. A digital floral print in dusty pink was used on scuba fabric that had been sculpted into waist-cinching day dresses. (Marras is not one to use technical fabrics, but he felt that, in this circumstance, scuba was a modern way to add volume.)
Those pieces were decidedly made for Fräulein Rottenmeier, while the girlish baby-doll and trapeze dresses were designed with Heidi in mind. Edelweiss—that distinctly alpine flower—appeared on a range of pink-and-blue frocks, most notably a tented number pleated from top to bottom. Marras did another version of that same dress in red tartan, layering black lace over the front. Styled with patent leather Dr. Martens sandals, there was certainly a nod to grunge. But the lace was too pretty and the pleats too sharp to truly compare it with tattered relics. Everything was pretty and, in a way, magical. Even the collection images felt like a storybook: The set was painted with scenes of the Alps, and a live goat was brought in to accompany the model.
