WELCOME to a new era of Milan Fashion Week. For its SS21 collection, Marni centres itself around a feeling of community, shooting its collection on the streets on Milan, using hand-picked archive pieces, that in turn were then restructured and re-dyed. Figuratively clashing the history of the fashion house with its present, the collection sees itself shot on film, off the catwalk, in a nod to the times.
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Focused on the process of creation, the collection separates itself from its previously more commercial releases, taking joy in stapling, scribbling and fixing together different pieces in the studio in a fashion student’s dream. Keep an eye out for voguish slashed lines and cropped coats, as well as frayed hems and a hash of different textures.
The lines between construction and deconstruction blur. It’s a celebration of rebellion against the norm of fashion week, following suit with other fashion houses, in experimenting with the idea of what the fashion world looks like in the new normal.
In perhaps its most unorthodox move, the show has no real seated audience. Instead, those passing on the streets becomes its spectators, seen fitted out in masks in the background (or sometimes forefront) of the imagery.
How does fashion fit into the new normal? The collection and campaign doesn’t want to present an answer for that. Think of it a incredibly stylish social experiment of our times.
by Emma Hart