Products

• Marni Spring - Summer 2011 at Milan Fashion Week

  
  26 September 2010
  

  Marni Spring - Summer 2011 at Milan Fashion Week: Perhaps inspired by the forthcoming 2012 Olympics, the Italian designer, Consuelo Castiglione, took a rather athletic approach in her Marni collection shown at Milan Fashion Week.

  Clothes inspired by every sport from track and field events to cycling and scuba diving were translated in bold stripes, prints, modernist florals, and blocks of colour.

  

  But while the theme may have owed much to serious sport, these were intended as playful, fun separates for the contemporary, urban wardrobe.

  The clothes once again demonstrated Castiglione's renowned mix of high-tech fibres, such as neoprene and nylon, with leather, silk and lace.

  Asymmetric tunics, with a double-flounced hem, and jogging-style trousers, came in bright segments of yellow, pink and sage, or peach, black and blue, delineated with black piping and go-faster stripes.

  Collarless jackets, with a 'scuba' feel, were fastened with industrial zips, detailed with drawstrings, and cinched with belts. Two-tone cycle shorts and leggings were layered under tiered dresses in zingy, zig-zag 'freize' prints, in green and oxblood, and short coats in 'cut-out' black mesh and PVC.

  Soft leather 'helmets' added to the sporting mood and, for evening, the athletic references were reprised in sequins, in green and beige, or a fierce aquamarine.

  Exaggerated leather-fringe, flat sandals were designed for those who want to be quick off-the- mark, but the high-heeled platform sandals signaled 'walk, don't run.'

  Milan Fashion Week finishes tomorrow (Monday), with the spring/summer 2011 collections of DSquared2, Giorgio Armani, and Roberto Cavalli, who is marking his 40th anniversary in fashion this season.

  (telegraph fashion news)