Marni Mens F/W 11.12

[Crying Diamonds]

MILAN, January 16, 2011

By Tim Blanks

One curious subtext in Milan this season has been the name-checking of Wall Street-style corporate sharks as style inspirations, but Consuelo Castiglioni looked to their exact opposite: the salt-of-the-earth blue-collar joes. These were clothes at their most utilitarian, cut from heavy, dry, hard-wearing fabrics like gab, felt, fleece, and a cotton/nylon blend. It was a good season for Marni to launch a denim line. The fabric was originally created for just such a worker's jacket and generously cut jeans.
br/> Solid shoes looked fit for the factory floor. Even a dressier piece like the double-breasted coat in gray felt had a rough-and-ready, no-nonsense feel. Same with an unstructured suit in khaki cotton. But that isn't to say that there wasn't a fashion sensibility at work. What looked like a jacket and pants, also in khaki cotton, was in fact a boiler suit. Plain dark navy shirts were sweetened up with tone-on-tone prints: flowers, hearts, polka dots. A multi-pocketed jacket in washed leather was given extra movement with wool ribbing. And there was a sizzling jolt of red—which is rapidly emerging as the season's favorite accent—in a mohair crewneck.

It was surely the directness of the inspiration that made this one of the strongest Marni men's outings in a while, and the collection was scarcely all work and no play. There were astrakhan hats and scarves, and a collaboration with Borsalino yielded some dandy trilbies.

style.com

 

[Crying Diamonds]

style.com

 

[Crying Diamonds]

style.com

 

[kingchic]

Omg..want want want (the coat)! Aside from that, meh; all I see in this collection is a sloppy Prada man. Not groundbreaking, by any means, but I'd still buy it.

style.com

 

[Spiral1532]

all I see in this collection is a sloppy Prada man.

That's a good way of putting it.
Disappointing collection, but there are some pieces that I would love to own. I love Marni.

 

[xPedro]

Love the shoes, and that's it.

 

[tatouejeremie]

i like the green orange stripey outfit! i want it!

 

[maxlinden]

I see the strips are big for FW 11.12 too love the orange, black, and army green look

 

[Squizree]

I hate this. It's so...disorganized.

This look has been done before and better.

 

[mikeijames]

the stripey pants and top remain the most authentically marni pieces i've seen for menswear bar none. i've always been baffled by the huge aesthetic disconnect between the womenswear and the menswear. for once, i can see something of a connection even if it's just two looks.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

the stripey pants and top remain the most authentically marni pieces i've seen for menswear bar none. i've always been baffled by the huge aesthetic disconnect between the womenswear and the menswear. for once, i can see something of a connection even if it's just two looks.

While they don't share the same visual motifs or language, I can pick up on a similar process. Marni is for assured individuals, assured in their taste, their sexuality, and their comfort. For the women's line that means an eccentric artistic flair with the bold patterns and prints, the offbeat colors, and the technically minded manipulations and materials. Marni is Italian after all and Castiglioni seems to appreciate this intellectual subversion of characteristcally Italian qualities. For the men's line, that same confidence is there, but mind you it is a man's wardrobe and it should change in translation. If you took the Marni women's line and adapted it literally for men it could come off as costumey or even campy. And as most men dress fairly conservatively, you'd alienate the customer for no reason other than to make a runway statement. Instead, Castiglioni is subverting another aspect of Italian dress, the sartorial side, playing with proportions and volumes (which, though not recently, is a Marni women's code). It's an incredibly smart collection with the same amount of intellectual brooding and consideration that you get in the Women's line. It goes to show that while the Marni woman is a peacock, perhaps her man is mouse, and maybe that's just how Castiglioni likes it.

This is easily one of my favorite collections out of the menswear in Milan this season.

 

[FashionPower]

I stopped watching pictures when I saw that striped look

 

[Donatello89]

how borring...

 

[BerlinRocks]

APC ???

if the prices were reasonable, i would go for it ...
casual, nice ...
Zara or APC (sorry APC to compare u to Zara) should hire the AD of Marni menswear

 

[mikeijames]

While they don't share the same visual motifs or language, I can pick up on a similar process. Marni is for assured individuals, assured in their taste, their sexuality, and their comfort. For the women's line that means an eccentric artistic flair with the bold patterns and prints, the offbeat colors, and the technically minded manipulations and materials. Marni is Italian after all and Castiglioni seems to appreciate this intellectual subversion of characteristcally Italian qualities. For the men's line, that same confidence is there, but mind you it is a man's wardrobe and it should change in translation. If you took the Marni women's line and adapted it literally for men it could come off as costumey or even campy. And as most men dress fairly conservatively, you'd alienate the customer for no reason other than to make a runway statement. Instead, Castiglioni is subverting another aspect of Italian dress, the sartorial side, playing with proportions and volumes (which, though not recently, is a Marni women's code). It's an incredibly smart collection with the same amount of intellectual brooding and consideration that you get in the Women's line. It goes to show that while the Marni woman is a peacock, perhaps her man is mouse, and maybe that's just how Castiglioni likes it.

This is easily one of my favorite collections out of the menswear in Milan this season.

while i want to agree with your premise, who is the marni menswear customer? i can see the inner workings of these garments (so much of it bears similarities to the minimalist collections circa 2005 or 2006), but in the end, the result remains something almost uninspiring. when marni (womenswear) is at its best (as in spring 2009 and spring 2010), it has that heady intoxicating quality that allows its wearer to throw on any mixture of the pieces and come out looking pulled together in a new and challenging way. this collection -- except maybe those striped pieces -- doesn't have that same energy at all.

 

[Uemarasan]

While they don't share the same visual motifs or language, I can pick up on a similar process. Marni is for assured individuals, assured in their taste, their sexuality, and their comfort. For the women's line that means an eccentric artistic flair with the bold patterns and prints, the offbeat colors, and the technically minded manipulations and materials. Marni is Italian after all and Castiglioni seems to appreciate this intellectual subversion of characteristcally Italian qualities. For the men's line, that same confidence is there, but mind you it is a man's wardrobe and it should change in translation. If you took the Marni women's line and adapted it literally for men it could come off as costumey or even campy. And as most men dress fairly conservatively, you'd alienate the customer for no reason other than to make a runway statement. Instead, Castiglioni is subverting another aspect of Italian dress, the sartorial side, playing with proportions and volumes (which, though not recently, is a Marni women's code). It's an incredibly smart collection with the same amount of intellectual brooding and consideration that you get in the Women's line. It goes to show that while the Marni woman is a peacock, perhaps her man is mouse, and maybe that's just how Castiglioni likes it.

This is easily one of my favorite collections out of the menswear in Milan this season.

This is a marvelous articulation of the Marni aesthetic! I've never really paid great attention to Castiglioni's designs before, but after reading what you've written I'm definitely going to look forward to exploring this brand more. Great writing!

 

[HeatherAnne]

^ Agree, beautifully stated.

I love this collection, it's so effortlessly cool. As Mutterlein eluded it would definitely take a certain guy to pull it off, much in the same way that the women's line takes a certain kind of woman -- and I'm a big fan of both.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

while i want to agree with your premise, who is the marni menswear customer? i can see the inner workings of these garments (so much of it bears similarities to the minimalist collections circa 2005 or 2006), but in the end, the result remains something almost uninspiring. when marni (womenswear) is at its best (as in spring 2009 and spring 2010), it has that heady intoxicating quality that allows its wearer to throw on any mixture of the pieces and come out looking pulled together in a new and challenging way. this collection -- except maybe those striped pieces -- doesn't have that same energy at all.

I think the Marni man is definitely older than this lookbook would let on, much in the same way the Marni woman is acutally much older than we'd think at first. I imagine an Italian man who in another life wore Armani, when Armani was refreshing (about 20 years ago) and he wouldn't totally be against Etro (he IS Italian), but he's much too progressive for that now. Instead he'll go for Dries Van Noten and Marc Jacobs Collection, perhaps even Calvin Klein Collection because of the fabrication if he is more on the plain side. There's an offbeat factor that he's looking for, but he won't ever stray too far. Perhaps he'll grab a more classic item for Giuliano Fujiwara, or maybe even Comme Des Garcons on a blue moon. And come to think of it, it's really not all that different from what Issey Miyake was doing with menswear in the 90's, in terms of customers and what they are looking for.

Like the Marni woman he definitely shops Prada provided the collection is not too gimmicky (as the runway collections can be) or conventional (as everything else they sell often is). But this is what makes the Marni menswear collection appealing, it does a good job of straddling both the directional and the traditional, appealing to a man who appreciates interesting fabrications and a certain amount of classicism, but who does indeed want something that feels modern.

It's ridiculous to compare this to APC, the materials and fabrications are on a whole other level, though I do think their customers could appreciate both collections. The sloppy men's Prada comment is not unreasonable, but I would consider that an improvement.