With the “Among High Lands” collection, Antonio Marras explored borders as lines dividing only on geopolitical maps; a journey from the peaks of the Gennargentu Massif, in Sardinia, to the Balkan Mountains between Serbia and Bulgaria. The lexicon of Pre-Fall 2025 was born from an old embroidered cap that his wife Patrizia’s grandfather, returning from Eastern Europe after World War II, had hung in their country house. The collection depicted a journey undertaken by an imaginary woman named Antona, while weaving through the ribbons of his family memories.
“With this trip, I return to using two terms I was often labeled with before they were abolished from the fashion vocabulary: folk and ethnic” explained Marras. With a unique ability to weave aesthetic dialogues, mastered only by those who can handle tradition in contemporary ways, the designer created a space that fused the familiar with the unfamiliar. The collection is a blend of memories transposed into modernity. The prints and floral motifs, recurring elements on knitwear as well as on lighter fabrics, are inspired by the reconstruction of old foulard designs or the embroidery found on an old hat. Elsewhere, a mix of tassels and jacquards, masculine fabrics and lingerie, and denim and striped cotton added an otherworldly element to the collection that was still grounded in reality.
Calf hair and shearling, jersey as a second skin and upcycled fabric patchworks, lace, sequins, aged-effect leather, tulle, and wool: the fabrics reflected a fusion of cultures that were distant kindred spirits. The same applied to the color palette, where warm and deep tones like browns and pinks were interrupted by vivid flashes of apple green, turquoise, or acid yellow. Rounding out the collection were maxi bijoux made of recycled plastic, sneakers, and wooden platform clogs that acted as a sort of Madeleine de Proust; as the designer’s father sold a similar model in his clothing store. Once again, Antonio Marras makes people imagine being anywhere while fully inhabiting the present.