Business Of Fashion – 17 juin 2018<\/p>\n
Francesco Risso exhumed vintage uniforms and twisted them into new guises. But the show\u2019s presentation pointed to layers deeper and darker than catwalk hijinks.<\/p>\n
BY TIM BLANKS<\/p>\n
MILAN, Italy \u2014 Francesco Risso likes to challenge his audience with the seating arrangements for his Marni shows. On Saturday afternoon, the chosen few hundred perched uncertainly on Swiss exercise balls. All in keeping with Risso\u2019s theme: L\u2019Olympiade Imaginaria, a surreal sporting competition in which imperfection was allowed and everyone – plump, skinny, old, young \u2013 was welcome. \u201cWe\u2019re used to the narcissistic pursuit of the perfect body,\u201d Risso explained, \u201cbut it\u2019s most important to bring tenderness. That\u2019s more powerful than strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re quite familiar by now with the way in which sportswear has transformed men\u2019s fashion, injecting a casual physicality into rule-bound tradition. Risso doubled down, stepped back in time, exhumed vintage uniforms for cricket, tennis, baseball, golf, minced and twisted them and fired them back in new guises. Imagine ballers in big caps and plus fours, like the Duke of Windsor joined a street gang. Or players in boiled mohair two-pieces striped in lilac and pistachio. Team sports in Alice\u2019s Wonderland.<\/p>\n
The sportiness was indisputable, from terry robes that were ringside-ready, to swathes of racing stripes and checks, to the big, bifurcated puffas and the doubled t\u2019s and sweats that will likely be the pieces that dress fashion editorials. But in the show setting \u2013 a rundown carpark underneath the Torre Velasca, one of Milan\u2019s very first skyscrapers \u2013 it was more interesting to chase Risso\u2019s rationale down the rabbit hole. \u201cA ping-pong Olympics in Andy Warhol\u2019s Factory,\u201d he rhapsodised. \u201cInnocence with a bit of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were photoprints of male body parts \u2013 homoerotic, I guess – by Berlin-based artist Florian Herz, followed by Matisse-na\u00efve graphics borrowed from the painter Betsy Podlach, their contributions pointing to layers deeper and darker than the catwalk hijinks. Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Sanchez\u2019s soundtrack \u2013 John Foxx intoning \u201cI Want to be a Machine\u201d \u2013 compounded that impression. And don\u2019t get me started on the invitation. Was it a gingerbread man made from bubblegum? It melted in the car.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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