Francesco Risso fielded a backstage compliment on his debut collection (“It looks very Italian, [with a] ’70s vibe!”) with grace, even though he looked a little taken aback to hear it. “Well,” he smiled, “it’s about femininity and the women around me—so that must lead to being Italian!” This young and still fairly unknown designer does indeed come from behind the scenes of one of the strongest of female fashion cultures in Italy—Prada. Risso succeeded Consuelo Castiglioni at Marni, and now he’s taken on the other female-led, avant-garde house in Milan. In the next breath, he paid homage to the leadership of both houses. “Consuelo was always about freeing men and women from stereotypes. They are very inspiring women.”
Suffice it to say, a visceral reaction to his collection set in around halfway through the show, with the entry of a brilliantly put-together combination: a shaggy purple coat with an orange collar, a high-necked orange crochet, a pale blue jersey checkerboard T-shirt, and hipster flares. From there on out, it was flower prints—Marni’s home territory. Risso came into his own with blurred-out ikats, punchy translations of ’70s Italian psychedelia, and delicate English sprigged cottons (styled in a new-generation way with sporty drawstrings and random layerings of bras on top of this and that).
It’s far too early to call judgment on a talent in his or her first season; this is the systemic mistake made by an industry typically run by corporations who hire and dispose of creative talent at an increasing rate of knots. Still, on view here was freshness and potential—the kind of new-generation energy Italy really needs.
