Antonio Marras Spring/Summer 2025 / SS25 at Milan Fashion Week entitled THE DUST ON THE STAGE IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
The dust on stage is extremely dangerous, Anna Maria Pierangeli’s grandmother used to say, annoyed at the idea of a young, naive Catholic girl going into the world of cinema. Anna Maria Pierangeli was born in Cagliari (1932) and later moved to Rome. She was discovered by chance by Vittorio de Sica and the director Léonide Moguy. As a young girl, she played the lead role in the film Tomorrow is Too Late, for which she won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival.
And from there her destination would be Hollywood, in the international star system of the big studios. The Antonio Marras SS25 fashion show is inspired by her, and by her incredible destiny, to the dichotomy between Sardinia, the land of her childhood, and Beverly Hills, her new home, between the American dream come true and homesickness, between the evocative atmospheres of holidays in Acapulco and memories suspended in time of a land of unspoilt beauty. The collection tells of the star-crossed love story between Anna Maria Pierangeli, now renamed Pier Angeli, and James Dean, a love animated and inflamed by cultural and character differences, steeped in desire and melancholy, a love that was short-lived but made immortal by the fatal attraction that gripped both of them from the first time they saw each other.
The show of Antonio Marras SS25 / Spring/Summer 2025 opens with an exchange of postcards between Hollywood, Acapulco and Sardinia and a letter to Pier Angeli’s mother, her watchful and intransigent guardian:
“Dear Mother, How are you? How I miss you! Beverly Hills is wonderful and I’m very happy here… I’m talking about the place, not my heart, which is sad and you know why. In Los Angeles, the weather feels like Sardinia, a fantastic microclimate where the temperature never drops below 15 degrees. Santa Monica beach reminds me of Poetto in Cagliari and, as you know, I can’t live without the sea, and the vegetation looks like what you find on the Sardinian coast. Oh, how I miss Sardinia, such a fantastic place… I often go to Acapulco with Jimmy, as I’ve mentioned before. I know you don’t approve, you don’t like him, you think he’s not right for me, but I love him. And he’s serious about things, he wants to marry me…”
Antonio Marras Spring/Summer 2025 / SS25 collection tells the story of dreams, loves, successes and summer evenings through clothes that are the result of an interweaving of styles, inspirations and references. Styles that merge and inspire each other. Sardinia, in its most explicit manifestation, such as the jacquard design of the Nuraghe, the princely symbol of a thousand-year-old land that is the guardian of time, is accompanied by prints in shades of ecru and black that evoke the age-old stones and archaic landscapes of the island. And then tropical bursts of the hot Californian summer and forays into Acapulco, palm trees and surfboards in penicillin green and orange, followed by unique flowers in vibrant colours on black backgrounds.
Antonio Marras SS25 men’s and women’s collection consists of overlapping fabrics, materials, embroidery, lace and prints that chase each other, meet and become one. The decorations are enriched with jet and sequins, bows and ruffles. The silhouettes are recognisable but the pairings unusual. Opposites attract. Nothing is as it seems. Lightweight silks draped like couture gowns, jeans treated like leather, leather printed like fabric, knitwear becomes raffia or a home for exquisite embroidery, sweatshirts are a space for inlays of all the materials in the collection or a blank sheet of paper on which to draw or apply the American university coats of arms.
From speckles to leaf prints, checks to spotted florals, all shades of ecru and black breathe life into wrap-around bodice dresses, slip dresses, loose shirts, summer shorts, flowing trousers, draped skirts, jumpsuits and kaftans. The same styles then explode in vibrant, shimmering colours such as sage greens, brilliant pale blues, intense burgundies and fluorescent yellows, that mingle in a tale of tropical prints, hibiscus flowers and anthurium. The dresses, skirts and tops feature lavish embroidery, delicate lace and bold fringing to create a striking yet contemporary silhouette.
The show is accompanied by a band playing live tracks, creating a rock ‘n’ roll atmosphere, symbolising a rebellious era that has never faded and of which we are the children.
All images Antonio Marras Spring/Summer 2025 / SS25 by Antonio Marras. PR Agency Errani Studio