Antonio Marras is Milan's resident romantic and consistently one of our favourite fashion talents. What one sees on the Marras runway never emerges anywhere else in Milan, making his art-tinged collections all the more special. This season the Sardinian designer took snow-jumping wolves as his inspiration. Images of the woodsy creatures were printed onto duchesse satin, beaded onto intricate chain mail, and recreated like illustrations on the front of crystal-covered knitwear. Even the models' hair had a touch of the wild, wrapped as they were into waves on either side of the head that resembled fox ears. The workmanship at a Marras show is always something to behold and this season he made magical layers of fur, embroidery and sturdy wools such as a pink furry panel covered in jet embroidered and sewn onto mannish tweed coats. The romantic quotient, on the other hand, seemed slightly tamed by the designer's own poetic standards, as he moved into more tailoring and even sports inflected silhouettes like anoraks, bomber jackets and military-tinged coats. The arts and craft soul of this designer can never be fully extinguished, however. Which means that there was still plenty of pretty pleated chiffon, macramé lace and fancy crystal cages transforming the menswear touches into artfully detailed collages.
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
