Quirky Milan; the Italian maison for art-school women.
Marni is the Milanese maison that built its reputation on deliberately ugly-pretty design — bold colour, sculptural shape, quirky print, an aesthetic that women in galleries, museums, and design studios immediately recognised as their own.
Founded in 1994 by Consuelo Castiglioni (and her husband Gianni, who came from a fur-trading family), the maison was sold to OTB Group in 2012. Consuelo left in 2016. Francesco Risso, the former Prada designer, took over and has steered the brand for the past nine years with a more performative, art-fair-adjacent identity.
Founded 1994.
Consuelo Castiglioni had no formal design training. Her husband Gianni inherited his family's fur business. She designed her first collection — coats and skirts in unusual textures — for one of his stores. The Milan fashion press noticed. Marni launched its first proper womenswear collection in 1994. Within five years it was the cult brand of European fashion magazines.
Marni was sold to OTB Group (Diesel, Margiela, Jil Sander, Viktor & Rolf) in 2012. Consuelo continued as creative director until 2016 — the longest tenure of any designer of her generation at a single brand.
Risso, a former Prada womenswear designer, took over in 2016. His Marni has been deliberately more theatrical than Consuelo's — bigger silhouettes, brighter colour, longer shows, more performance art. The Trunk bag remains the maison's bestseller; the Pannier and Carrying Bag are his additions.
2 eras of creative direction.
Twenty-two years at the helm. Castiglioni's quietly weird aesthetic — print, colour, sculptural shape without aggression — defined Marni for two decades.
Nine years. Risso has pushed Marni toward a more theatrical, art-fair-adjacent identity. Bigger shows, brighter colour, more performance — but the same fundamental quirk.
7 icons. Each one a scene; each scene a gallery.
Structured saddle bag with twin top handles and accordion sides. THE Marni bag.
Architectural top-handle with curved bottom.
Multi-compartment soft hobo.
Woven raffia and leather summer bag.
Tote bag — clean lines, soft leather.
Soft puffy clutch shaped like a block of tofu.
Unstructured Trunk variant.