Marni’s Francesco Risso has put a fresh spin on the idea of collaboration, shutting himself away with two artist friends to create a collection of paintings, reimagined Italian furniture and a fashion collection that was filled with sweet and sour candy colors, and lots of silk and fur.
The designer spent 20 days with the two Nigerian artists known as Slawn and Soldier on the project. Their art is currently on display at Saatchi Yates gallery in London in an exhibition called “The Pink Sun”
“It was not the usual collaboration — I wasn’t sent a drawing to put on a T-shirt,” said Risso, who was excited about the work he did with Slawn and Soldier.
“We first had the idea two years ago, sitting at a bar table together. When we finally came together, it was such an intense — and freeing — experience, it was like there were vibrations between us,” he said.
The show was set up like a cabaret set with live music, including string instruments and drums, while guests sat at little tables covered in stiff cloth that had been slicked with paint.
Guests sipped Campari drinks while models — including Tracee Ellis Ross — walked down a narrow, makeshift runway between the tables dressed in decadent designs that recalled some of the costumes in the 1972 film “Cabaret.”
Fur was everywhere, snaking down the front of a long, tailored coat, making up the red candy stripes on a boxy top, and curling thickly around the necks and shoulders of ladies wearing silky patchwork gowns in artificial candy shades of lime, acid green and faded purple.
Even the daywear had a decadent, and sometimes surreal, feel. Three-dimensional flowers bloomed from shirt plackets and from the bodices of low-cut dresses, while a white lightning bolt flashed down the side of a sulphur yellow dress. Traditional Crombie coats had surprising cocoon shapes at the back.
“I wanted the art to pervade everything and for people to feel like they could get drunk on these clothes,” said Risso, whose world was a fun one to inhabit, even for a fleeting moment on a winter Wednesday.
