The Aesthetics of Encounter by Antonio Marras
Spring-Summer 2026 adds yet another chapter to Antonio Marras’ mythological universe. This time, the heroes of the tale are English writer D.H. Lawrence and his wife, German aristocrat Frieda von Richthofen. The couple spent time in Sardinia in 1921, a journey that culminated in Lawrence’s travel memoir Sea and Sardinia. Marras imagines them pausing in his beloved Alghero, falling so deeply under its spell that they invite their friends – modernist writer Katherine Mansfield and the entire Bloomsbury set led by Virginia Woolf – to join them. This captivating premise becomes the inspiration for a collection focused on cross-pollination, both aesthetic and cultural. After all, the works of the Bloomsbury Group helped reshape our societies, sparking conversations on feminism, pacifism and sexuality. To dress these characters in their imagined Sardinian sojourn, Marras blends past and present. Post-Victorian British codes encounter original elements of Sardinian folk costume, thanks to a collaboration with the Piroddu Laboratory archive in Sennori (Sassari), a workshop dedicated to the making and restoration of traditional garments. The resulting aesthetic clash is a deliberate rebellion against the rigid etiquette so despised by Lawrence and his circle – forging instead a thoroughly contemporary style. In Marras’s ideal world, Sardinia, located at the heart of the Mediterranean, becomes the epicentre of a cultural and aesthetic renaissance built on encounter and inclusion. For this reason, the star of the runway was Sardinian shepherd Giuseppe Ignazio Loi, who also plays a shepherd in Riccardo Milani’s forthcoming film La vita va così, hitting cinemas in October. Among the audience, meanwhile, were spotted Clara Mathilde McGregor, Fanny Egle, Michele Bravi, Giorgia Malerba and Rachele Santoro.
Text: Giuliano Deidda
Photos: Francesca Zama
