One of the big trends at Milan Fashion Week is several designers are moving into a very masculine and clean look for Fall. At Marni, designer Consuelo Castiglioni moved away from the young and playful style the label is known for. This season Consuelo and her design team showed one of the most grown up and sophisticated collection in a long while. For the opening section Castiglioni focused on a straight and clean look combining little pinning detailing here and there. This straight style also opened the collection to a more relaxed and loose form. Consuelo abandoned that tapered leg pants of seasons past and showed several baggy and full legs pants. One the best look was a baggy gray wool pant worn with a dusty rose crepe blouse.

As the opening section progressed the collection slowly moved into some odd directions. One of the sour notes from the collection was the makeup on the models; the look is noted as “no color on the face, ghostlike and delicate”. They models didn’t look ghost like at all, more like they just dropped out of a body bag at a morgue. Another miss for the section was the prints, I didn’t like the leaf prints used on blouses and dress. I also did not like the printed sheer organza dresses.

One of the strongest looks in the opening section was a gray pinstripe collarless wool jacket. The shape of the jacket is very straight with the sleeves fanning out at the cuff, creating an almost balloon shape to the sleeve. On a odd note, the real belt for the jacket was used as a neck scarf, while a white belt was put around the waist of the jacket. For the evening section Consuelo focused on a very flowing modern silhouette, made up of boxy evening gowns. The models looked like they were covered with a sheet and tied with a belt. There is one evening coat that really stood out, a navy blue and ghost white paneled coat on Carmen Kass. The contrast seaming of blue on white creates a 60’s geometric design.

This collection as a whole really presented a lot of outerwear options. The must have outerwear looks included a cropped short sleeve brown wool jacket with a Cardin collar. The jacket was worn with a large polka-dot print blouse detailed with sequins and a pleated loose pant. The other look was a navy blue wool long sleeve overcoat with the fabric laser cut into a lace design from the waist down. The jacket was worn with a pale gray dress underneath.

Outside of all the great outerwear looks, the collection was a little lacking. The only other strong items were the accessories. The must be noted items were the necklaces and bracelets. The show seemed to be hit or miss with other, personally I felt like the collection was put together in a rather odd manner. Some of the looks seem to repeat from section to section. The coloring was not defined in one section rather reused over and over. I did find the collection a very clean and grown up look for Marni. Certainly a change from the 60’s edgy shapes and prints. The small selection of prints was the down point to the collection.

view collection here

[images via style.com]