Antonio Marras Spring 2016 collection was a creative outlet for his highly personal, romantic point of view. He keyed in on Sergei Iosifovic Parajanov, an Armenian director and artist, whose work — including many collages — Marras found in a 2007 exhibition in Paris called Le Magnifique.
“I found many affinities between his incredible, genius work and my own work,” said Marras in a pre-show interview.
Parajanov’s film “The Colour of Pomegranates”; and his interest in Georgian folklore, and the region’s many ethnicities struck a chord with the designer.
“We need excess, eccentricity against the cliché, banality, uniformity.”
The clothes delivered on this thought, beginning with linear, simple shapes in ornate prints — a long, straight V-neck dress, a patterned jacket over boy shorts — and ranging to ornate shapes with eclectic ornamentation. Humble silhouettes and drab colors contrasted with the rich and regal. For example, a cropped gold jacket with elaborately decorated shoulders was worn over a plain clay-colored cropped utility jumpsuit with a vaguely ’40s double-breasted blazer detail. Dresses featured embroidered collars and gold polka-dot details, others were shown in bold rose prints suspended from simple spaghetti-strap shoulder ties and layered over plain ribbed undershirt style tank tops.
The range of lavish fabrications, embellishments and constructions included brass and gold palliate and exotic, fairytale trims conjuring a rich nostalgia. The show ended with a finale of purist white, crafty romance. Yet it was tempered by real silhouettes: tailoring, shirting, easy overcoats and tank dresses.
The Fashion Plate Magazine 