Sardinia Goes Hollywood
Review of Antonio Marras Spring 2025 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Cinematic. Vintage glamor. Dark romance.
“The dust on the stage is extremely dangerous” – this was the oft repeated warning from her grandmother to Anna Maria Pierangeli, the Italian actress who left Cagliari for Hollywood and whose rise to fame, torrid romances, and eventual tragic end inspired the layered cinematic glamor of Antonio Marras’ Spring 2025 collection.
Known professionally by the pseudonym Pier Angeli, Anna Maria grew up in Sardinia (Marras’ home, which often forms a point of inspiration for his collections), where her childhood was marked by the hardships of WWII. She was discovered by director Lèonide Moguy, and made her debut in Tomorrow is Too Late at the Venice Film Festival in 1950. Her Hollywood breakthrough came the next year with Teresa, for which she won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.
Though lauded for the emotional depth of her performances, Angeli also gained notoriety for her tumultuous relationships with fellow stars. In the summer of 1954 she fell in love with none other than James Dean, with a possible marriage in the works – one that her traditional Catholic mother vehemently opposed. But then just that November she made the surprise announcement of her marriage to Italian-American (and Catholic) singer and actor Vic Damone (legend says on the day of the wedding James Dean was waiting outside of the church for her on his motorcycle), whom she later divorced before marrying composer Armando Trovajoli. All the while, Angeli struggled with her mental health and career aspirations, which led to her tragic death from a barbiturate overdose in Beverly Hills on September 10, 1971, at the age of 39.
Drawing on Marras’ skill for intuitively combining craft techniques and thoughtful yet unexpected fabric selections into poetic new compositions, the collection explores this life story with a symbolic and romantic rather than literal perspective, drawing on 50s and 60s Hollywood glamor and Sardinian seaside ease without losing an undercurrent of dark romance and drama. Explicit references to Sardinia as both a site of history and a resort destination come in the form of jacquard Nuraghe (the island’s iconic ancient megalithic structures) and local flora and playful souvenir sweatshirts. The coastal microclimates of both the island and southern California are represented with tropical flourishes, while sharp tailoring and craft embellishments echo a Hollywood cocktail party. The collection’s four final looks feature a brilliant trompe-l’œil effect with embroidered and printed ants crawling all over them – as if to say that this Hollywood picnic is not all sunshine and rainbows.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
It’s a different way to see the American dream… This is not a typical love story, not a Disney love story. It’s melancholic and that comes through in the collection alongside the glamor of these 50s-inspired couture pieces we created.”
THE WRAP UP
Antonio Marras is impressively consistent in his design perspective, the impressively broad and deep craft detail of his collections, and the way he incorporates inspirations connected to his home of Sardinia into this vision. Though this collection doesn’t totally stun like some of his previous ones and didn’t evolve his vision too far forward, it is another strong example of his narrative-driven craft practice.
