Fashion is all about taking risks. And in days of sticking to brand DNA and commercially driven collections to satisfy the appetite of the etailers, Francesco Risso stands out with Marni.

While mini Marni’s are springing up all over Milan with Plan C and Colville where Castiglioni family members or the ex-design director Molly Molloy and stylist Lucinda Chambers are filling the void of artfully quirky clothes, Risso’s Marni is at the vanguard of the new sustainable movement in fashion. It’s a whole new Marni just like Celine was all new under Phoebe Philo. In fact, Risso could become the new star of Milan fashion week as his up-cycled and stitched together clothes and his message of survival are powerful and the truest representation of Zeitgeist in Milan. Bringing in set designer Stefan Beckman to dream up an army tent in which one can gather strength before the final battle and Camilla Nickerson as stylist to strip Risso’s ideas to the bare minimum as in A line dresses and cardigans combined with the simplest of sneakers was a clever move. Marni is buying up gigantic stocks of vintage fabrics to use in its collections and works with Venetian factories to develop its own yarn to make this collection of patchwork and collage clothes.

The true artisanal approach to fashion?

Here are clothes where one truly believes they are connected by the time it took to make them. Hand-stitched together cardigans, velvet dresses with handmade cutouts applied, brocades made on antique looms all in micro silhouettes and A-shapes. Or fabrics that were bleached in the sun and not by a machine.

The message?

The world is stuck in a rabbit hole and Risso took his bow dressed as a rabbit coming out of the backstage hole. What’s nice, this designer actually wants to make a contribution through his clothes to create a more conscious approach to fashion. It’s credible. “Alice in Wonderland going for the rainbows and learning from established craft” was Risso’s cryptic explanation.