On September 20, millions of people took off from work and school around the world to hit the streets in protest of climate change, demanding that fossil fuels are no longer burned. Marni's spring 2020 offering brought climate change down the runway. Francesco Risso invited the show's guests to sit on recompressed cardboard benches under a recycled plastic jungle, according to Vogue, to take in Act 2, spring 2020.
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In Act 1, Risso presented his spring 2020 menswear collection, a conscious approach to engage in a deeper conversation on ethical values and sustainable fashion practices: “We are here today to confirm our position in the world and to move towards action,” Risso told Vogue in June. “Let’s be vocal about our beliefs.” There was a wedding between between Truman Capote and Ernesto Che Guevara, officiated by by MCMagma, a shamanic non-entity which is the spirit of transformation. You need to know this for context because Act 2 is a wild ride.
For Act 2, Risso reimagines a tropical disease (hence the jungle setting) that leaves its victims with what Vogue refers to as a “beautiful vertigo.” In essence, he “wanted to create looks that cause ‘ecstatic sensations’ and ‘nice shivers.’ He wanted, essentially, to make fashion that gets under your skin.” The cure, presumably, is Risso's version of “Tachitropirina,” a made up word for the cure to those aforementioned sensations.
According to a press release, “Tachitropirina is part of the pharmacologic group of anti-infective, antipyretic and anti-toxic drugs” and “is recommended for use by all subjects who are hypersensitive to tropicalism: bulb women, mangrove ladies, cocoon females, liana amazons, jungle janes, palm elves.” But don't take too much, as the same release cautions taking more than the recommended amount causes “mimicry and forest escape, with acute manifestations of tree-hugging.”
The collection came to life with a “frenzy of brushstroke prints that wraps everything like a jungle that swallows bodies and silhouettes, transforming clothes into cocoons” through everyday items like the parka, the denim jacket, the sweater, the skirt and the shirt which were blown up to pure design objects. “Shapes are curved, enveloping, organic; or they are cut, distorted and then assembled. Always moulded.”
And its quite fitting, considering fashion is (and can be) one helluva drug.