At Marni, Being “Basic” Becomes a Virtue
The “basic bitch”—the hypothetical mindless consumer of mass cultural distractions like pumpkin spice lattes, Lululemon, and old Celine bags—has haunted fashion for nearly a decade now, turning designers’ carefully considered, most artistic output into items to be catalogued and over-consumed.
For the most part, menswear has remained blissfully free of the basic bitch. While the “basic bro” certainly exists, the kind of clothes shown at men’s fashion weeks tend to speak to a larger audience of fanatics, transmitting its runway strangeness far less often to the average male consumer. Or, at least, that was the case—until Marni designer Francesco Risso had his way with his Fall 2021 collection on Friday.
Risso, who’s been at Marni since 2016, has injected a handy, colorful absurdity into the brand, turning a quirky art gallerist favorite into more of an art scenester favorite. (The brand is premised on the idea that