Origin: 1994, Milan Italy

Designer: Consuelo Castiglioni

Field: Menswear (at Hunting and Collecting)

Bio:

In 1994, Consuelo and Gianni Castiglioni launched Marni, the iconic luxury, eclectic women’s clothing and accessories collection.

The designer, Consuelo Castiglioni, created an avant-garde spirit balancing exceptionally-crafted ready-to-wear with a complete line of accessories. Consuelo’s modern approach to materials and silhouette, juxtaposing color, exclusive prints and textures has resulted in a new, unique form of functionality.

In addition to the women’s collection, Marni men’s launched in Spring Summer 2002 followed by Eyewear for Fall Winter 2005–06 and Summer and Winter Editions in 2009.

At the Marni Milan headquarters, the company takes pride in its internal, vertical production and distribution units. Each season, continuous product research results in new, innovative techniques enhancing the quality across a wide spans of product categories. As the selection of Marni products broadens, standards are maintained with each item retaining a unique, immediately-recognizable Marni artisanal touch.

Marni’s distribution strategy targets a selective, niche clientele. Retailing at over 320 point of sales worldwide, in 2000, Marni began a roll out of freestanding Marni boutiques and shop-in-shop. Today, nearly 100 Marni stores figure in the world’s key fashion capitals of Milan, London, Paris, Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Dubai. Overseeing the stores’ interior design, Consuelo maintains the distinctive Marni concept by giving each location its own, authentic character.

SS12:

The great outdoors, refined, utilitarian details; clothes apt for the big city or the big escape: a sense of freedom and adventure runs through the Marni Man collection for spring/summer 2012. The execution is precise, the tone graphic: block colors, intarsia, idiosyncratic contraposition of forms and materials. Yet, a new sense of ease steps in, an opening up to possibility and contradiction. Touches of odd color and a nod to the pre-sportswear of the 70s replace romanticism with a quirk, quixotic look at a lo-fi past.
Everything is light to the touch. Double layers and intarsia create relaxed geometries on shirts and shorts; striped blazer-and-bermuda combos have the nonchalant ease of long-worn favorites. On garments, the sum of the parts in highlighted rather than hidden: contrast details on parkas give an abstract twist to utilitarianism; knit collars are attached to stripy shirts. Long knits are deliberately put out of context under suits, suggesting a carefree approach to dressing; trousers are cuffed, trekking-style. Shorts are a key item: “slouchy neat”, they follow graphic patterns and are worn with lace-ups and socks, meant for a walk in the woods! The graphic vein carries through knitwear: intarsia jumpers, mélange knit and stripy tops are easy and precise; combinations of ribs and jersey on short-sleeved shirts suggest a constructivist interpretation of trusted basics. Jersey check shirts have an old-school adventure feel.
In the quest for freedom prints get light, leaving way to color block and subtle stripes as the main protagonists. Flower compositions overprints add breath; paillette motifs provide a slightly off-kilter twist.
The palette is muted yet idiosyncratic, full of sudden breaks: deep blue, inky blue, light blue; white; light grey; and then shots of mustard, bright green, day-glo orange. Fabrics have a soft, compact hand: cotton poplin, twisted canvas, light gauze, double-face jersey.

Accessories include leather lace-ups with natural rubber soles, sturdy sandals, washed canvas or denim rucksacks, shoppers with rucksack detailing. Printed caps and panamas suggest en plein air scenarios. Sunglasses play with a mix of classics, havana and black, cream and black, green and beige.