The Marni invitation is usually a card of saturated color. This season s was blank white, the name embossed tone on tone—change was clearly afoot. On the catwalk there was a white cotton sundress that was as simple a thing as Consuelo Castiglioni has ever shown. That s what she was after: "More clean, more fresh, more light," she said. The prints that made Marni s name no longer seem to interest Castiglioni as much as proportion, and the best way to illustrate that is with a monochrome palette, a conclusion which, thanks to Cristobal Balenciaga, feeds the essence of haute couture. Not saying that Marni approaches such heights, but there was plenty in Castiglioni s black and white experiments with controlling volume today that echoed the shapely sophistication of a couturier.
Still, the girl can t help it. She loves herself a graphic. The show opened with a section in checks created by an artful interplay of nylon jacquard tape and cotton ribbon. It was an airy, light embodiment of Castiglioni s game plan, and a well-judged appetizer for a series of sober, solid-colored outfits that focused on pure shape. But then Castiglioni dropped in some print: a sack-backed spectacular with a front panel of plastic paillettes that vibrated with hyper-color was a stunning reminder of Marni s authority in this area of idiosyncratic style. There was more to come in the form of a coat in fil coupé over a skirt in a matching print.
But it was the blankness of black and white that had clearly captured Castiglioni s imagination this season. It was easy to see why, when a handful of peplumed beauties made their way down the catwalk. Even easier with a closing outfit of a crow black coat shaggy with glittering splinters over an embossed skirt with the gloss of an oil spill. Also infinitely worthy of mention: the shoes inspired by designer Carlo Mollino, with platforms of Lucite or metal, and the jewelry, small and perfectly formed from wood.
