Many of the high-profile attendees at Marni’s New York fashion show on September 10 will be wearing the label, thanks to a batch of archival items that Cameron Silver has already started pre-selling. The Decades founder and luxury brand consultant will also host a trunk show on September 7 at the Marni store on Madison Avenue to give shoppers a closer look. Some of his valued customers from Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Arkansas will step on board to view the unique pieces and decide which ones to donate to the runway show.
While editors, influencers and other powerhouses in the fashion industry are known to sync their labels to represent whichever runway show they’re attending, Marni creative director Francesco Risso took the practice to a new level by dressing each person that followed the brand’s show last fall. in Marni.
Along with Fendi, Marni is one of the European labels that first touched the don in Manhattan. Digitally savvy and marketing minded Renzo Rossi, president of Marni’s parent company OTB, sure knows how to create memorable experiences.
With New York Fashion Week moving into haute couture for the first time since the pandemic hit and millions of people returning to their back offices several days a week, Silver believes consumers will dress up again. “At the beginning of the pandemic, I started telling brands, ‘Don’t think we’re going to be wearing sweats for the rest of our lives.’ Many people were slow to get back into shape [looks]. People love to play dress up and express themselves and everyone wants an Iris Apfel moment. We just celebrated her 101st birthday.”
Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and designer houses are touting sleeker looks for fall in an effort to reverse the casual tide that has swept across the U.S. In the summer of 2020, 60 percent of Americans reported that sweatpants or sported their WFH attire, and only 6 percent were dressed in business attire, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
The global second-hand market has also been growing and is expected to double by 2026, reaching $82 billion, according to online resale platform ThredUp.
“A lot of people want to own fashion as art that’s one-of-a-kind,” Silver said of the interest in archival Marni items. A few dozen pieces will fit, and a few important fashion philanthropists (“owners not borrowers,” according to Silver) will compete for previously worn styles.
The two-hour sale on September 7 is scheduled to be included in their date books. Marni fans are expected to make it to the Upper East Side store after the FIT Couture Council luncheon across the park at Lincoln Center honoring Dior’s creative director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories collections, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Pleased with the response to a monthly pop-up at Sage & Madison in Sag Harbor, Silver is considering a three-month pop-up next summer in the Hamptons. “We had a secret pop-up that was the destination for fashion lovers who don’t want to be [fashion] the victims. It ties in with the Marni project because it’s all about one type. As things become more accessible in luxury, these brands need to respond and offer something discriminating to their customers, who want something that no one else has,” said Silver.
As celebrities have become more open to wearing luxury items from past seasons, luxury brands are opening up their archives so a standout piece can be carried over to make a statement next year, he said. Julia Roberts’ black and white Valentino gown at the 2001 Oscars, and more recently Cate Blanchett’s willingness to recycle her red carpet look, have contributed to the consumer acceptance of first-wear, as well as the interest generated from the pandemic. in being more environmentally conscious.
