Marni’s Francesco Risso in Conversation With Tim Blanks

In crafting the show for his January 2020 menswear collection in Milan, Marni creative director Francesco Risso was inspired by Prince Prospero, a character from Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” The use of the story about plague and aristocratic excess set in a Renaissance kingdom would prove prophetic given the fact that Covid-19 was soon to spread around the world.

In the latest BoF Live, editor-at-large Tim Blanks sits down with Risso to unpack his thoughts on the future of fashion and his role in it, as well as Risso’s self-proclaimed mission, to preserve craft — or, beautifully, slow and handmade things — in an increasingly digital world.

“There’s something really important that I’m quite attracted to, which is a sense of responsibility in terms of design and the fact that these pieces can be made by hand and they can be one of a kind, but they can still be enjoyed by people and produced in small portions,” Risso said.