This season's showroom presentation offered an opportunity to explore the strengths -and the weaknesses- of Consuelo Castiglioni's collection for men. There still wasn't an awful lot to it, but, honing a fetishist's eye for detail, one could extract some substance. Cue CC's fixation on Kim Gordon's watercolors. She wasn't so entranced by the Sonic Youth concert she saw, but she loved Kim's artwork enough to get her to contribute a T-shirt graphic. From that it was possible to extrapolate a grungy subtext in the collection, particularly with an acid-green mohair sweater, or a Seattle-worthy long-john-and-sweatshirt combo. Admittedly, the latter was in cashmere, which supported CC's affection for the notion of "elegant punk". And it was a similar spirit that took classic menswear emblems -like the striped shirt, the camel coat, the duffel coat- and warped them into Marni-land. Patchwork the stripes, razor-cut the hems on the camel, line the duffel with button-out shearling -that's how it's done. So sober, so chic.
