It’s interesting to see how harnesses have recently become rather fashionable. In most cases, the designers who created such accessories claimed that, more than being obsessed with fetishism, they were intrigued by experimenting how the body movement is altered by wearing such constraints or by the effects created by leather contraptions on the bare body or on the clothes. Harnesses have so far been conceived as body accessories, but at yesterday’s fashion show Marni transferred the theme to shoes in a successful way.
The first sandals that appeared on the catwalk gave the models’ feet the impression they were horses’ heads imprisoned in harnesses. With their thick colour-block leather straps with solid studs, the sandals had a somewhat aggressive though fascinating silhouette. The harness theme came back in massive platform shoes in orange and yellow leather that seemed to hug the foot while at the same time they restraining it.
There was also another theme on Marni’s catwalk, colour contrasts, as the platform shoes with leather motifs in green and beige, orange and brown or white, grey and violet with a solid yellow platform proved. In some cases strips of leather were also used to create interwoven coloured motifs used to decorate the shoe platforms and heels.
Art Deco lighting zigzag motifs in vivid hues also appeared on white plateau heels, their clashing colours perfectly complementing Consuelo Castiglioni’s multi-layered look created by wearing one on top of the other garments with abstract, geometrical or floral prints in silk, organza and cotton and with a palette going from ochre to blue, from pink to green.
All the sandals were worn with black knee-high socks decorated by just a few minimalist lines in colours that matched the shoes. Marni’s signature solid conical heels, often in natural materials such as wood, were extremely high, but looked more solid than Prada’s precarious heels complemented by ballerina socks with a ribbon that caused the other day more than one tumbling accident at Miuccia’s catwalk.
It was also interesting to see how at Marni the shoes created more colourful clashes with other accessories such as the huge flower and leaf sculpted necklaces, bracelets and earrings, the avant-garde disc necklaces decorated with large stones or the fancy tulle gloves.
Though at times clumpy and clunky and in Autumnal colours and materials, Marni’s shoes were sophisticated, refined and absolutely covetable, a bit like the ones designed by Nicholas Kirkwood for Pollini. You can read my report about the latter on the Dazed Digital site.
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