Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Antonio Marras took his show as an opportunity to throw a little party. He wanted to celebrated a new alliance with manufacturer Castor with a wedding party. Guests where sitting around little tables drinking coffee and eating iced sponge cake. The models paraded about in dresses and coats made from patchworks of bouclé fabrics, damasks and tweeds in candied almond shades.

Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2012

Inspired by singer Milly, a singer who was a living metaphor for Milan in the 20th century (and the lover of the king of Italy), Antonio Marras presented a stunning series of fall/winter clothing.

His pieces were detailed and romantic. Worn on the runway they were like little pieces of art translated into contemporary womenswear.

Marras’ designs represented Milly’s souvenirs from all the places she had been and all the men she had loved. And without knowing what those might have been, you could see the clothes were telling a story.

Gorgeous tweeds (perhaps from a coat of one of Milly’s lovers?), English walpaper florals (from one of the rooms she may have slept in), embroidered fall leaves (which might once have decorated a skirt or dress) and richcolored slightly graphic  patterns (origanited from an old tapestry?) together formed a rich and classy mix.

Used on structured coats, pencils skirts and blouses with pointed collars they made the young models look like graceful, elegant ladies. Ladies with an exquisite, original taste of fashion that is. And though the designs might have had a classic forties touch to them; every single one of the looks will easily create a wow-moment seventy years later, in winter 2012/2013.

Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Milan ss2012

It was a very feminine and soft collection Antonio Marras sent out this morning. It moved between elegance and casual, color and nudes, prints and plain colors. Marras started with floral prints for draped blouses and floaty dresses with a romantic touch.  Several emsembles also reminded ofItalian bombshells, like an animal-print jacket teamed with a bra and pencil skirt, or a curvy dress with a molded bust. For the finale, Marras sent out a group of his familiar folkloric looks. Black and white, blue, purple and red dominated the collection.

Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2011/2012

Antonio Marras’ show was inspired by his mother’s elegance, so a large picture of her featured as he backdrop of the show.

The models wore items his mother used to wear too, like vintage menswear jackets embroidered with sequins and feathers. But also little black dresses, belted cardigans and sweaters with corsages to make them more playful and feminine. They all breathed 50’s elegance.

During the finale all models appeared in LBS’s with polkadots and white starched collar.

Kenzo Catwalk Fashion Show FW2010

Kenzo’s invitation was a vacuum plastic ‘bag’ with different sorts of dead leaves in it. Kenzo’s catwalk was decorated with what looked like dead palm trees. Let’s just say Antonio Marras wanted to make clear he was showing his fall collection for the brand.

Bourgeois and bohemian styles came together in this seventies inspired collection. Long, wide, dresses were made out of multiple fabrics. Marras chose the most beautiful floral and graphic prints and let those prints come together in his patchwork designs. The autumn colors (light brown/terracotta, light green, yellow and faded pink) he had picked, looked lovely.

Not only different prints were mixed and matched, diverse fabrics were seen in one look as well. Airy floral dresses were combined with fur and sequined waistcoats. Next to the floral dresses we saw checked versions decorated with bibs of feather creations. They were followed by a few darker, striped designs.

The felt hats looked great. Together with the printed scarves, sunglasses and wegde-soled boots they were the perfect accessories for this boho collection.

We read Marras mixed the styles of iconic women like Maria Schneider, Tina Chow and Farrah Fawcett for this collection. But we’ve never spotted these women in such outstanding designs before. And although we liked the show, it wasn’t something we’d never seen before at Kenzo.

Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2010

Antonio Marras didn’t just chose a theme for his show, in fact a real classic story was the inspiration for his winter collection.

Marras told the story of Paska Devaddis, a female bandit who ruled the Sardinian mountains around 1900. Devaddis was renowned for her mixing of men’s and women’s clothes. She used to ride on her horse a lot, so to the sound of galloping hooves the show started.

The version of Devaddis Antonio Marras presented wears floral lace dresses in bright colors. Yet she hides these feminine dresses underneath several different thick layers. She puts on all these layers to keep herself warm.

One of the items Devaddis likes to combine with her dresses is a heavy sleeveless coat in tweed or fur. She wears the ones that have been disassembled and are sewn back together. Capes and military cloaks with epaulets also fit her clothing style.

Every now and then Devaddis shows her feminine side by revealing some body parts through a very transparent dress or some see through lace. She also wears pleated skirts and her capes have many jewel embroideries.

Although Devaddis is no longer with us, she might just become the next style icon. The combination of clothes was really great and refreshing and with the Devaddis story in mind it all looked even better.

At the end of the show the window frames that were hanging at the beginning of the runway were lifted and all models appeared again. To the sound of trampling hooves the 43 Devaddis look-a-likes strolled down the runway one last time.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Kenzo

With the fw2010 fashion show Antonio Marras proved that after forty years of fashion Kenzo is still on top of the game.

The show started off with models dressed in warm-colored clothes, perfect for fall. A lot of woolly designs were shown. We also saw many checks, long overcoats, sunglasses, hats and some floral prints.

Then the clothes turned gray. At first the gray was combined with leopard printed gloves, shoes and bags. A leopard printed coat definitely stood out, yet not necessarily in a good way.
Other eye-catching pieces were a denim overall and a shiny hounds-tooth coat.

Marras designed many loose-fitting clothes. Especially his pants were much wider than the pants we saw at other fashion shows.

Towards the end all models headed outside for the show’s finale. There Place des Victoires was transformed into a film set, inspired by the movie Traffic (1971). Thirty vintage Citroën cars were driving around in the same direction as the models were walking. An old bus was picking them up.

What a great finale!

Nighttime at Antonio Marras

Antonio Marras Catwalk Fashion Show Menswear SS09