What makes Antonio Marras a unique presence in fashion is his ability to tell stories imbued with visceral authenticity.“Flying over Porto Conte with Antoine and Consuelo” is a journey that begins and ends in Alghero, the Sardinian city where the Marras family has its roots. “This land is an inexhaustible source of richness, always offering stories we can draw from,” the designer said.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry—the famous French writer and aviator—spent the final months of his life in Alghero, and Marras’s resort collection was born from imagining that his beloved wife Consuelo Suncín-Sandoval Zeceña de Gómez joined him there by air, flying the very same aircraft her husband used during his missions.
A Salvadoran writer, painter, sculptor, and artist, she studied art in San Francisco. In Mexico, she met Diego Rivera; in Paris, she spent time with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Balthus, Max Ernst, and Picasso. Salvador Dalí was one of her dearest friends. In the United States, she opened her home to Ingrid Bergman, Jean Gabin, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Jean Renoir. She was the inspiration for The Little Prince, and in this collection, Marras imagined the wardrobe she would have packed for a journey to an island where the wind tousles your hair.
Embodying the romanticism of a vaguely dandyish femininity, the collection takes shape through embroidered pinstripes, damask fabrics, and plaid cottons; rubberized flowers and aged-effect leathers; sculpted silhouettes, hidden pleats, and balloon volumes; faded denim, kimonos, and sheer fabrics. Faux furs are made of silk, knitwear is adorned with appliqués evoking a starry sky or worked in jacquard depicting a postcard of the dome of San Michele in Alghero, while patchworks of floral prints recall the island’s wild flora.
The colors reflect a landscape seen from above, where nature spreads across the warm tones of the earth and the airy blues of the sky; a bordeaux shade stitches it all together.