Marni- Article #4

Article from The Times:

September 29, 2009
Milan Fashion Week: Marmite at Marni
You either loved or hated the dark flesh colours, stripy leggings and headscarves. Not to mention that banging soundtrack
Lisa Armstrong

Marni is one of those ultra-shrewd labels that manages to create an interesting, left-of-high-fashion (yet still unmistakeably high-fashion) vibe that is also extremely wearable on women of all shapes and sizes. Perhaps that’s why the buyers’ faces turned increasingly perplexed as the show unfolded.

I loved it almost unreservedly, although I can see that those (dark) flesh colours aren’t for everyone (or indeed anyone not blessed with a deep Mediterranean olive complexion) and that the stripy leggings that came with many of the print dresses and also accompanied a pair of large-pocket black shorts — and looked so adorably whimsical on the catwalk— could add another 15lb to most women’s legs.

That said, there were surely plenty of lovely pieces to be extrapolated here, from the floppy, deconstructed silk jackets and duster coats and the block coloured linen “suits” (in Marni world, a suit is a dress-coat plus tailored Bermudas) to those hybrid items Marni does so well — this time, tweed and silk waistcoat-dresses. It may seem counter-intuitive for a house famous for its floral prints to go easy on them in a season that has flung itself overboard in pursuit of flowers, but this house has always offered an alternative view. Here’s another: “Wasn’t the soundtrack great?” I asked my Saturday Times colleague, coming out of the show. “Pass me the Nurofen,” she replied. It’s all subjective in the end.