That’s not to say that this fall 2008 was not frequently beautiful and beguilingly new, just that one felt the models themselves had been let free in their mum’s wardrobe and dreamed up half the crazy combinations on the catwalk.

Marni’s designer Consuelo Castiglioni juxtaposed fabrics, colors and materials in every outfit. Vests with mink backs and astrakhan fronts appeared with rough silk dresses, wooden platforms finished with tweed and leather and high-tech plastic pendants. Checks were huge in cobble stone sizes, gloves were heavily seamed and above the elbow, knee socks were in broad stripes.

Where recent Marni collections have been dominated by highly coated, technical fabrics, this season Castiglioni went for marbleized materials, but so Impressionist as to seem taken from a Monet lily pond. She even wore one such look herself as she took her bow.

“I wanted the sense that women keep experimenting with their clothes. That each day you try something new on,” smiled the designer backstage in the north Milan show space.

Ironically, though her fashion has a dreamy, nonchalant quality, Marni shows zip along. Most designers send models out on the catwalk at intervals of between 12 and 19 seconds, Consuelo spaces them every nine seconds, heightening a certain sense of mystery. It’s an enigmatic piece of staging for a mysterious collection.

photos courtesy of Fashion Wire Daily

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