I adore the lyricism and artistry of Antonio Marras. When I had lunch with the Sardinian-born designer in Milan last year he made adorable “water colour” paintings for me with the dregs of an Espresso. After a bumpy ride designing for Kenzo in Paris, Marras is firmly back in charge at his own-name label in Milan and he displayed a rip-roaring return to form this year with an exquisite collection for fall-winter, which has just arrived at Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong.
The collection was inspired by the Bloomsbury Group, which was full of artistic ladies like Vanessa Bell or Edith Sitwell. The show featured a glasshouse with Edwardian mothers sewing, painting and sculpting as their children played, a music room with a chamber orchestra and a child with watercolours. A chaise lounge and a draped bed completed the air of romance.
Marras found his inspiration for the collection in an exhibition about Bloomsbury that he curated at the Palazzo Clerici in Milan called Il Altro Tempo (Another Time). The project made him aware of the way England’s bohemian femmes fatales combined masculine and feminine tropes with a town/country aesthetic. Hence, he presented severe tweed jackets embroidered with feminine roses or lace and baggy sweaters decorated with cross-stitch flowers.
The craftsmanship was impeccable. Marras’s creations are often like an opera in fabric, telling stories with soaring ambition and they are more like heritage couture than disposable fashion. Every woman who cares about style should own one of his pieces.
