Benjamin Piercy was a Welsh civil engineer who traveled with his family to Sardinia in the 19 century to build the island’s railway line. To make life abroad easier for his wife and children, he built a luxury villa out of nowhere in central Sardinia, a vast, sparsely populated countryside where nature was then pristine and intact. The villa and its famous gardens are full of exotic natural specimens, brought back from his travels by the adventurous engineer, which aroused the curiosity of Antonio Marras. His great storyteller’s imagination was let loose, and he came up with a pre-fall offering inspired by Piercy’s stray daughter.
Romantic and whimsical, this collection is filled with Marras concocted pieces in endless variations. Bouquets of dried flowers, sprigs of fall foliage, straggling ivy and feathery ferns were appliquéd on repurposed surplus parkas, tutus and knitted jumpers. The colors are faded and hazy like autumn in the woods. “I imagine the engineers’ daughters taking long walks in the garden, gathering flowers, letting them dry between the pages, and sewing or embroidering them on their shirts, kimonos, or their little blazers and pleated mini kilt.”
Marras’ energy is untamable, and the collection is filled with multiple, often contrasting propositions – mini and maxi, fitted and loose, slim and Fluffy, masculine and feminine. In the romantic world of Marras, opposites are attracted to each other and coexist. That was his carefully honed formula, constantly regenerated through the power of his flamboyant imagination.
