Marni’s Tokyo dream

Suspended voices for a visual symphony read from the back: a choir on the stairs of the arena receives the baton from the orchestra that performed live at the center of Yoyogi national gymnasium during the Marni fashion show. In that space created in 1964 by Kenzo Tange for the Tokyo olympics, brutalism lives together with Japanese lightness. The musicians have outfits made of white paper, and paper covers even the hall from the delicate floor that could be ruined, paper also used for Francesco Risso’s suit on which those close to him wrote a message directly with a pen. A blank page on which the new aesthetic of the Otb’s brand is built, because for the fall-winter 2023/24 season you can feel a renewed dialogue between tailoring and colors, between shapes and graphics, between composure and hypervisibility, between clothes and people, between the brand and a city that has always loved it. «There is this beautiful relationship between Japan and Marni», Francesco Risso, creative mind of the brand linked to Renzo Rosso’s group, who was in the front row at the show, explained to MFF.

«Therefore, after New York, this seemed the second most correct stop. This traveling tour will continue, we have not chosen the next one yet, but it has to be a special place and not simply a backdrop. My passion is connecting people, we are not interested in creating things that get locked inside a museum, so this interaction is vital for me». Models emerge from the four cardinal points of the facility and cross the stage where the artists are performing the soundtrack that, once again, is entrusted to musician and producer Dev Hynes, accentuating a renewed rigor. The outerwear takes the stage with a strong precise and sartorial meaning, sharp and with intense hues, suiting men and women in a universe in which sex in not a limitation. Flat shoes with bon ton cleats for him as well, like wide pants, shorts and tops with square lines, all with a cleanliness and a timelessness desire.

«We looked at ourselves in the mirror and decided to create something that reflects the value of our practice», Risso continued, «which is not the storming futility of the five-second-and-away imagery on Instagram. That is the real challenge, because I may love clothes to death, but the truth is that we are prisoners of the algorithm». However, the algorithm will also be a fashion victim, succumbing to the bold but fluid combinations of bold graphics, flanked by suddenly no half-measures, inflated and important volumes with a capsule of duvet jackets and padded jackets, created in collaboration with designer Dingyun Zhang. Big, black and huge polka dots blooming like flowers everywhere, paired in the looks with precise and linear patterns like robotic and icy tartans, with socks and one white and one black shoes, in a revised optical mix.

Judgment. The link created between the brand and its designer is special. One seems to fulfill the wishes of the other. The vision of one materializes the dream of the other. We breathe lightness and freedom, but with a keen eye. The choice to be itinerant is apt, as the maison needs to tell with its own dedicated space. Traveling to various places becomes like a second honeymoon in a marriage. It keeps the passion alive. (all rights reserved)