Marni S/S 2019 Milan Fashion Week Men’s

Mood board: The show notes to Marni’s S/S 2019 menswear show began with this mind-boggling sentence: ‘Imagining Olympics that are imagined imagining.’ This is the charm of creative director Francesco Risso, who joined the brand in 2016 and has since become known for his esoteric, Daliesque approach. The focus of the collection was on the physical, but far from being an ode to the proliferation of sportswear lux that has taken over menswear, Risso characteristically looked the other way, employing a more surreal, playful interpretation of the theme. ‘Being conscious and proud of your body, regardless of your flaws is a great achievement. I was inspired by the elegance and the naivety of the sport attires of the past which represent to me the essence of masculinity in sports and I reinterpreted them putting a dream filter on it,’ Risso said. The clothes were therefore mashed up archetypes of sports uniforms; cricket, tennis, athletics, fight, golf, football, racing, all reassembled and reimagined. Stand out were two hulking, padded bombers in vintage prints that zipped together to form hybrid, screwball styles.
Scene setting: Last season Risso set up the brand’s showroom like a surrealist scrap yard as we perched on vintage radiators, bumper cars and soft toys. This show was held deep inside the sweltering car park of the Torre Velasca, a residential brutalist towerblock in the centre of Milan – guests sat attentively on bright green yoga balls, bobbing up and down as a soundtrack of aggressive ping pong set the scene for what was to be a surreal, sensual riff on sportswear. Ultravox’s post-punk ‘I Want to Be a Machine’ blared out, splicing the thick atmosphere with its new wave optimism and soul.
Team work : The erotic, abstract photographs by Berlin-based artist Florian Hetz were enlarged and placed onto the front of varsity t-shirts and patch-worked into short-sleeve shirts. Formal illustrated portraits and heraldic symbols taken from a two-hundred-year old scrapbook were printed onto striped shirts and shorts; American painter Betsy Podlach’s sensual, poetical nudes, often in repose, were seen on short, wide-leg trousers and nubby dressing gown coats.
Marni S/S 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Marni S/S 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Marni S/S 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Marni S/S 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.
-
Bees can now check in at Kew’s new pollinator hotel
At Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden, artist Kristina Pulejkova unveils four functional sculptures that tell the hidden story of seeds and act as a refuge for bees during the heat of summer
-
Andu Masebo and The Singleton’s bespoke furniture celebrates the beauty in slow craft
British designer Andu Masebo collaborates with single malt Scotch whisky The Singleton on a multifunctional furniture piece boasting minimal design codes
-
Inside a midcentury modern house so good, its architect didn’t want to mess with it
‘I was immediately a little bit frightened, because it was such a great house,’ says architect Casper Mork-Ulnes of Roger Lee-designed gem in Berkeley, California
-
‘Changing Fashion’: a new exhibition explores how photographer David Bailey reshaped style
‘David Bailey’s Changing Fashion’ at the Marta Ortega Pérez (MOP) Foundation in A Coruña, Spain is a wide-ranging retrospective of the British photographer’s fashion oeuvre. Here, his son Fenton Bailey tells Wallpaper* more
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear season
Between the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Let there be light: a closer look at Prada’s stripped-back S/S 2026 show set
‘This is the first time the Fondazione is completely bare, with the light coming in,’ said Raf Simons backstage at Prada’s ‘light, fresh, colourful’ and ‘human’ S/S 2026 men’s show in Milan
-
The standout shows of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: Prada to Dunhill
Wallpaper* picks the very best of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026, from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ ‘light, fresh’ and ‘human’ display to Dunhill’s exploration of English dress codes
-
Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: live updates from the Wallpaper* team
From 20-23 June, Milan Fashion Week Men’s arrives in the Italian fashion capital. Follow along for a first look at the shows, presentations and other fashion happenings, as seen by the Wallpaper* editors
-
What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026
As Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026 begins in Florence, the Wallpaper* style team select the moments they will be looking out for – from Jonathan Anderson’s anticipated Dior debut to outings from Wales Bonner, Kiko Kostadinov and Prada
-
Milan exhibition celebrates 20 years of Armani Privé: ‘Haute couture is fashion when it becomes art’
Hosted at the Tadao Ando-designed Armani/Silos, ‘Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025, Twenty Years of Haute Couture’ displays an expansive collection of the Italian designer’s showstopping haute couture creations
-
The best fashion moments at Milan Design Week 2025
Scarlett Conlon discovers the finest fashion moments at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2025, from Loewe’s artist-designed teapots to The Row’s first home collection