Francesco Risso’s Instagram handle is @asliceofbambi. It’s an easy won insight into the mind of Marni’s relatively new creative director who, in his short three years at the brand (which was founded by Consuelo Castiglioni in 1994) has helped the company achieve double digit growth.
Risso, after all, is as enigmatic and upbeat as the label he helms. When we meet at Marni’s Via Giancarlo Sismondi offices in Milan on a bright May day, he’s wearing a bucket hat, a bright check overshirt and a pair of red leather shoes; and he’s sat in an office full to bursting with what can only be described as artfully curated bric-a-brac.
There’s a shearling-covered chair by Philip Arctander, a leather sausage dog by Dimitri Omersa and a gigantic bespoke rug that effectively fills the room. It’s an eclectic aesthetic mirrored not only in the clothes Risso sends down his runways, but also in his show setups. For Marni’s AW18 collection, for instance, Risso had the attendant journalists and buyers sit on sand bags, balled up carpets and old sleeping bags rather than chairs.
It’s the aforementioned clothes, however, that really set Risso’s Marni apart in the Milanese fashion diaspora. Trained by Miuccia Prada, Risso worked as a womenswear designer at the label for eight years before joining Marni (which is owned by Renzo Rosso’s Only The Brave group) in 2016 and the slightly awkward “jolie laide” aesthetic of his alma mater is palpable in the collections he produces.
His most recent, for instance, SS20 – shown in Milan this weekend – was a clownish mishmash of patchwork suits, Mad Hatter top hats, billowing silk shirts, paint-brushed leather field jackets and oversized slides-cum-slippers. There’s a childlike joy and a magpie-esque eclecticism to Risso’s work that feels modern and friendly. No old-fashioned high fashion introspection to see here, Risso’s world is one of inclusivity and warmth, joy and ease – and the occasional tricky shoe.
When we eventually leave his office we head down to Risso’s favourite restaurant, Le Torre De Pisa, where – over plates of fresh pasta, bowls of insalata di carciofi crudi and one or two glasses of Chianti – the designer with the world at his oversized red leather shoes reveals to me a little of the blue sky wisdom that helps him shape his very specific (and totally saleable) world view.
On working with your partner
“My boyfriend, Lawrence, works at Marni too. He’s associate creative director. He’s very methodical and his mind is very much about logic. He looks at pieces and he knows already how the pattern is made, while I’m completely in the clouds all the time. So it’s a great combo. Of course, it’s not easy. You kind of have to have a method, but it’s great. There’s nothing better than it!”
On starting a collection
“I always start the collections thinking about a person. It then evolves into a story, almost like a book; it evolves into something else. For instance, sometimes I’m attracted by the idea of world travel, but then I realise that actually you don’t really need to travel to travel... you know? Actually, when you open the door of your house you’re living through different cultures anyway. You don’t need to go to India to see Indians. You don’t need to go to Africa to see Africans or to Sweden to see Swedish people. Cultures in a city are very connected and we are living in a much smaller world than we used to. I like the idea of cutting up journals, of taking people from all over the world and mixing them together for a collection. It’s a bit like how David Bowie used to cut up his songs and then put them back together to make a different one. For me it’s about putting together different states of mind. That’s how I normally start.”
On what he’d be doing if not fashion
“I would love to be a director. It was actually one of my dreams was to be a film director. But I don’t know. I think my skills are in forms of expression and probably – specifically – making clothes was my gift.”
On his favourite restaurant in Milan
“Torre De Pisa in Brera is one of my favourites. I mean there are many places in Milan where we go, but I have to say I’m very connected with the most traditional Milanese places, places where you can live the real deal. This place is very traditional. I mean, the kitchen is more Tuscan, but it’s one of those places in Milan where it’s always nice. It’s almost like being home.”
On his childhood
“I was born on a small sailing boat in 1982 and it was quite an odd experience that I don’t remember much of. I was very young. I lived with my father and mother for five years around the Mediterranean and the Red Sea on this boat. My father was obsessed with sailing.”
On his parents
“My mother was very passionate. She used to work for Benetton when it first started. She helped them find beautiful spots where they could put their shops. It was quite incredible, but on the other side my father was a complete alternative. He didn’t want to work. He studied to be a lawyer, but it never worked. He was the creative one, you know. He would go to Brazil for a month and ride horses. I mean he was quite alternative. Like, we would have people coming in for lunch and he’d invite 30 people because he would have met some random people on the street and been like, ‘Everybody come to lunch at the house!’ It was very Italian in that sense.”
On life before being a designer
“I opened a shop in Genoa, which was such a fun project because I would sell Alexander McQueen’s clothes, then I had Azzedine Alaïa’s clothes, I had Rick Owens', I had really good brands. Genoa was quite a weird spot, so everybody wanted to be in my shop. It was so nice. It was really fascinating because I opened it while I was working with Alexander McQueen. After our fashion week together, I would do the buying for the shop in Paris and London, which was great because I was able to see other people's experiences and how they worked in their companies, their different approaches, their points of view.”
On creating a fashion archive
“I have been collecting since I was 13. I liked even then to express myself through clothes. I remember I used to buy Comme Des Garçons. There were three or four things I was quite obsessed with, but then growing older I have become more obsessive compulsive. I moved from certain designers to things that were not even connected to fashion, more like uniforms or sailor suits or cowboy shirts. My archive is more composed by interests or certain typologies. That’s how my archive became an archive. I had months when I used to just wear sailor suits, particularly when I was working at Prada.”
On working at Prada
“I started as just a simple head of the knitwear department and from the second day everything transformed into something different, every month, every day, every single situation. That's what was fascinating about being at Prada. Year by year my position kind of transformed. Eventually I was more dedicated to brand development. I was much more involved in opening the new stores and making special collections for those stores. I was involved in brand endorsement, like the movies, working with the directors. My main responsibilities were the shows too.”
On learning from Miuccia Prada
“I certainly learnt my method from her and her team, but I don't take her method as my method. I learnt a lot and when you start that’s the only thing you want to do, but you don’t want to get trapped in the same method because that might lead you in the same way of thinking. So you have to come up with your own method and that takes a while because, you know, you build your career working for a creative director and then suddenly you become one, so you kind of have to transform yourself and channel your own instincts.”
On sustainability and up-cycling
“I like interacting with fabrics, with pieces we already have in house. I tear them up and make another story from them. Sometimes it’s about recycling, not from the past, but from pieces that are already there, maybe prototypes that are already there. I do that with my clothes a lot. I don’t like to buy clothes and keep them as they are. Normally I tend to rip them off or change the sleeves. I’ve been doing that since I was young with my sister's clothes, which you have probably read about!”
On the Marni man
“Who is the Marni man? Well I feel more and more that Marni needs to communicate with people on all sorts of different levels. Like when I make a show where it's all about collaging several types of spirits, I think I’m attracted by the idea that Marni is a place where you recognise ideas, where you recognise your creativity, where you can enjoy an experience, where there’s a dialogue between the buyer and the maker. We have a 70-year-old architect who is obsessed about the brand and we have kids of 14 who are already looking for their own style – and then we have people like the 35-40 year old photographers and artists, so there’s not really a limit to who the Marni man is.”
On what fashion should be in 2019
“I think that in this particular moment we need some sort of real connection with the things that we do. The experience of making clothes and being able to let a customer enjoy what they’re wearing and live part of the creativity that’s behind the garment... that process gives a bit of life and connectivity in a world of separation, I think, in a world of Brexit and Trump.”
On Diet Prada
“There’s one side of it that’s good and one side that’s not. Of course, now with this era of communication everybody can have an opinion or a point of view. There’s also the fact that the master designers such as Balenciaga and Dior all took their inspiration from something that was before them. Dior especially was a copycat of some designers of his moment, but he made an incredible, genius recipe that was great for that moment. Copying and being inspired has happened since fashion started. But now with Instagram we’re able to ‘pew, pew, pew, pew’, shoot everyone down, which is an interesting game, I guess.”
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