This week on The Run-Through, Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps is joined by Francesco Risso, the creative director at Marni.
For the past nine years, Risso has transformed the formerly family-owned Italian label launched by Consuelo Castiglioni in 1994 from a purveyor of sophisticated, off-beat clothes for artsy women to a laboratory for experimental and innovative forms of creative expression. In September, Risso showed a collection made entirely from cotton—the most every-day of fabrics—which was hand-painted and manipulated to such an extent it looked like an entirely different material. “This collection started from cotton, and that is like the most incredible tool of resistance—if you think about time, it’s a fabric that lasts forever,” the designer shares in the episode. “It’s that beauty that can accompany us in life. And beauty is an act of resistance to me, especially right now.”
Risso also delves into his years at Prada and his unconventional upbringing—he was born on a boat and later lived with his extended family in a sort of extreme Brady Bunch-like scenario. “I was living with my five brothers and sisters, their parents and grandparents and it was really hectic,” he recalls. “And I was the youngest. I was very silent until I started to make, and I think I found the expression through making.”
As a special bonus, you’ll also learn the meaning behind his Instagram handle @asliceofbambi. “It’s the combination of this fable that’s so sweet and so dreamy and yet it can be so harsh if you look at it from another perspective.”
