Marni: A Roman Takeover
In less than a year, Marni’s creative director Francesco Risso has succeeded in redefining femininity the Italian way.
When Consuelo Castiglioni announced that she was stepping down as artistic director of Marni — the Italian fashion house she founded in 1994 with her husband — the shock was off the charts. Questions floated in the air: who would or rather could fill her shoes?
In October last year, the name of Francesco Risso was pulled out of the hat. We know very little about him, apart from the facts that he studied at the Polimoda in Florence before he headed off to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and then to end his course at the Central Saint Martins in London. Anna Molinari, Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Malo and Prada are the Italian houses where he worked before being promoted to the post of artistic director at Marni.
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When asked about the label he has joined, Francesco said, “Marni is more than a label. It is an incredible universe with infinite possibilities. What fascinates me the most is the independence in the freedom of approach that goes well beyond the confines of fashion. To be the artistic director is a very exciting challenge. I have been a client of the brand from the very beginning and have always loved their personal vision of fashion, the creative research that goes behind each collection. I have been lucky to have received the opportunity to enter this diverse universe and to contribute to it with my work, and have that work evolve is what inspires me every day.”
Freedom was a recurring theme in our conversation. This 30 year old cosmopolitan from Genoa who spent his early years in a sailboat on the seas from Asia to the Caribbean with his parents, reckons that independence is an essential for anyone who is to head a fashion house. “As a creative person, the most precious of all the treasures that we possess is the freedom to be able to put across one’s message as one chooses. For me, I always listened to my gut, how I felt and my intuition. I am a good observer. I analyse everything that surrounds me, and to integrate into a brand that is well known, I must respect its traditions, but also have the courage to put down my personal style in an innovative manner.” And he did just that as is evident from the success of his first collection that he presented at the Milan fashion week, menswear line in January and womenswear in February.
“From my very first day at Marni, I felt a mix of excitement and fear, and also enthusiasm. I was confronted by several challenges and the first was the lack of time. I started there in October of last year and I was to present the men’s collection in January. It was crazy.” A month after the men’s show he delivered the most daring womenswear collection, avant-garde and resolutely modern. Flared coats with floral prints and psychedelic designs evoked the Italian woman of the ‘70s in best of her elegance and femininity.
When we asked him who the Marni woman is according to him and how he saw her evolve, he said, “I don’t believe in categorisation. Femininity is an attitude, a mix of charm and sensitivity, of personality, of self-confidence and natural elegance.”
From the October 2017 issue of L’Officiel India.
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