Marni: Magnificent under the Manhattan Bridge

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 12, 2022

Add cellist to the already considerable list of talents of designer Francesco Risso, who played the instrument in an 80-strong orchestra in his Saturday Marni show, attended by Madonna.

A sensational sunset-to-sunrise collection staged underneath a giant arch of the eastern end of the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn.

“I suffer from opacarophilia, or the obsessive love for sunrises and sunset. That’s the definition of struggling love,” laughed Risso, dressed like the rest of the musicians and score or more of singers in waxy cotton sunset ochre and orange surgeons' smock and pant.

Carrot orange tanks; cantaloup bras; ginger pants and crimson red coats all riffed on sunset. While pink flamingo tops; bubble knits and Persian orange loon pants suggested sunrise.

In between, Risso played with multiple sky blues in some remarkable proportions - whether faux-fur Arctic blue sailors pants or cobalt and white silk evening gowns.

Most of the elaborate shapes were made of singular pieces of fabric where the sleeves of gowns linked all the way to the hem. As if elements of the body - like tendons and musculature - all took on new forms and life. The loops and elongation reflecting the sense of infinity one sees in the horizon, the Italian designer explained.

A collection based on an extended look book of a full day from the bluest minute of sky to deep red and orange sunrise or sunsets. Random pictures from different moments.

“Not even the most depressed poet on the planet couldn’t fall in love with a beautiful sunset. Which, of course, is an illusion. As the sun never really sets or rises it just moves around in a loop,” beamed Risso.

The designer emerged from the orchestra at the show finale, clutching his cello, which he began playing just a couple of years ago.

Part of a remarkable soundtrack - a live orchestra playing a remix of Reconfig by cyber punk synth group Shortwire. A tour de force of a collection and show greeted by enormous applause at the finale, a stormy event juxtaposed to an elegiac array of clothes.

“The idea of a sunset seems so calming and peaceful. This the collection was all about creating a sense of pause in our rhythms. In the complexity of the world that we are living in it just felt right to acknowledge a pause,” said Risso.

He discovered the giant arch when passing by looking for a location and then heard the sound of the train, whose continuous loop felt connected to the collection.

Besides, the whole space gives a unique perspective of New York. As did the whole collection on today’s fashion.