A#23
Brooklyn, New York
In a departure from Francesco Risso’s regular Milanese stomping grounds, the Marni creative director and A#23 curator stormed Brooklyn this season, staging the Marni Spring Summer 2023 show under the Manhattan Bridge. His embrace of unconventionality and childlike curiosity tapped into the storied bohemian past emanating from New York, from Tompkins Square Park to Williamsburg. Replete with searing colour and a reiterating circle motif, the collection was a vision of hippie modernism at times inspired by the paintings of Risso’s longtime friend and artist Flaminia Veronesi.
Many characters in the Marni universe featured in A Magazine No.23 Curated By Francesco Risso reprised their roles for this New York affair, such as art director Babak Radboy and casting director Rachel Chandler. In addition, models documented by Chandler inside the issue including Cranston, Jess Maybury, Juno Mitchell, Nina Granic and Sveva Miserotti joined famous faces from Mariacarla Boscono to Malgosia Bela, Lara Stone, and Guinevere Van Seenus. Staying true to his hands-on approach to crafting his new Marni vision, Risso discreetly played the cello throughout the show alongside the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, following an original composition by Blood Orange’s Devonte Hynes. The spectacle, bound by the high arches of the BDNQ train tracks, was a resounding rejection of conformity that bears witness on both sides of the Atlantic.
Order your copy of A#23 here, or find your local stockists here.
Every sunset is also a sunrise, somebody else.
“Somebody” because, the sun never really sets somewhere — but everywhere, all the time; depending on who’s looking.
Like a rainbow, you can’t chase it.
Like a train; you catch it by standing still.
Like a memory, it appears, only as it fades away.
Like the future; it disappears, by its very growing near.
So it should be concluded; the sunset is not a phenomenon of the sun – taking place on the horizon; but a phenomenon of the body – setting the sky on fire.
if you are in the right place at the right time – you too can make a sunset. But if you want to be in the right place, at the right time – all the time; you have to keep moving.
So here we are in New York, with all of our friends, painted by Flaminia Veronesi, just after sunset, waiting on a rainbow – attempting an act of mass transportation.
We’ve asked Dev Hynes, and The String Orchestra of Brooklyn, to help us catch the train on time.
But like a sunset,
Like a rainbow,
Like a future,
It won’t happen without you.
New York City, September 11th 2022
– Francesco Risso
A Magazine No.23 Curated By Francesco Risso
I’m drawn to the books by their cover, their texture and design; it must catch my eye instantly for me to pick it up. I need a book to intrigue me! I like to spend the whole day reading through my initial selection, as there might be books by many artists I don’t know yet. I can spend more than two hours in a single bookstore, checking every book until I am exhausted. Then I go sit down and get a coffee. And then come back to it again.
‘There’s a relationship between chairs and clothing. Clothes and chairs are objects that function for the body. Each chair is different: even ones made of the same material, the interpretation might be completely different. Like here at this table, all the chairs are made of wood, but each has been designed and treated in a unique way by the designer who made them. For me there’s a link between this and say a pattern for a shirt, where each designer interprets the same thing differently.’
‘We don’t fight.’ The statement is delivered without emphasis, simply as fact. In fashion, volatility is reframed as creative energy. Raised voices, late pivots, visible intensity — these are common. Encouraged, even. But Awa Malina Stelter and Stephanie Gundelach, the founders of Opera Sport, are not interested in that way of working.
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