Storytelling is apparently one of the keys to fashion success today, a magic word invoked by everyone, from retailers eager to make the shopping experience memorable (actually not so much for customers as for their bottom line) to designers sometimes struggling to give credible meaning to bland collections. On Instagram, if you’re not good at storytelling, you’re quickly confined to oblivion. There are even personal coaches and online courses designed to help improve this skill. It’s one lesson for which Antonio Marras need not apply; he has built a long career on his talent for producing narrative collections and elaborate, theatrical stage presentations.
So what’s the story he had in mind for Resort? “Cho-Cho-San meets Sailor Moon,” the designer explained, referring to the female protagonists of Puccini’s famous opera Madame Butterfly and of the Japanese anime series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. “They are metaphors of the yin-yang dynamic that is in every woman’s nature, fragility and force.” Somehow they met halfway to give the collection a stylish, cacophonous spin.
Mixing and matching with gusto is inherent to Marras’s stylistic vocabulary; here, he gave his penchant free rein, blending everything from a sailor theme to military references, from floral brocade textures fit for opulent interiors to classic tartans straight from the Highlands. Cases in point were hoodies and sweatshirts heavily embroidered or decorated with lace intarsia. Kimono jackets assembled from hand-stitched patches of denim and cotton florals were paired with sequined skirts, while humongous knitted sweaters were emblazoned with the famous Hokusai Wave motif. Marras didn’t restrain himself, really. Adding to the already heady medley, his beloved Jack Russell terrier, Pierivo, was cast as a model; embroidered on a yellow and blue T-shirt dress, he looked the part, supercute in a sailor beret.
