Dwelling between elegance and romance, AW25 pointed to wardrobe offerings that leaned on both subversion and a nod to creative too-muchness.
IF ANTONIO Marras has one thing to prove to the world at this point in his career is that he can do lavish. For his new ready-to-wear collection for Fall 2025, models had starlet hair, swept and sleek to one side. And they were wearing maximalist tailoring from start to finish. It’s a continuum on the path of the house’s creative vernacular, yet at its heart, he had the same old fascination with the attraction of the familiar, tradition and opposites.
Toying with references from the world of opera, Marras homed in on classic aestheticism with a strong dash of boudoir (as seen across N21’s outing), where sinuosity, stillness and movement collided. One dress was a lacy black number with eruptions of gold embellishments.
There were other numbers in which the panels were exaggerated with fountains of beading. A simple bias-cut silk topper toted a swatch of fabric like a worn-out drape. That was the kind of strangely subversive flourish that distinguishes Marras’ own collections.
Marras is a fiercely creative designer. Here, for instance, there was a wealth of gowns with a two-dimensional spine curving down the leg or over the shoulder. It was so weird that it shouldn’t have worked, but on the garment side, everything was in place—aside from the wobbly heels that were less successful, which had few models falling right in the middle of the runway.
Elsewhere, the draped, twisted and knotted suiting—especially the ones in a smoked grey fabric—gave a quite impactful alternative for customers who prefer to pass under the radar of day-to-day dressing while still being swanky.
All in all, this ample-considered lineup could have done with some editing, but it’ll surely appeal to the house’s wide range of customers who are buttoned-down and eccentric in equal measure.
by Chidozie Obasi