The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Antonio Marras’s Sardinian home-cum-atelier
Fashion designer Antonio Marras took a ruin in his beloved Sardinia and transformed it into a sanctuary. By Mark C O’flaherty. Photographs by Fernando Lombardi
THE HOUSE THAT THE designer Antonio Marras shares with his wife and business partner, Patrizia, in Sardinia is a living mood board for his luxury womenswear collection. At times it’s difficult to see where work ends and home begins – room after room is filled with photographs, mannequins, textiles and spools of thread.
The couple moved here 23 years ago, just before his fashion label took off. ‘It was a ruin to be restored, but full of fascination and magic,’ Marras explains. ‘We wanted a big house, in the middle of nature but not far from the city, and we found what we wanted. This place is like an island on the island, it’s where I live and work, and it’s very much mine.
It is full of the things I like, which change continuously.’
Marras is as inventive as he is stylish: architectural salvage oddments sit alongside vintage toys from his childhood, Catholic icons and wonky ceramics. ‘I look for the discarded, the error, the gap,’ he says, somewhat cryptically. ‘I deliberately create chaos and try to represent it with order.’
The carpet that Marras, 56, is standing on sums up what he’s talking about. He designed the dark floral pattern himself, and had it painstakingly woven by local artisans using the same methods handed down for over a century. ‘It was… very complicated,’ he says, with a mix of exasperation and obvious satisfaction.
The thrown-together feel of the house harks back to the first couture show Marras staged in Rome, 21 years
‘I wanted it to be a place where someone picks up a book, looks at a painting, embroiders or draws’
ago, which saw him create spectacular evening gowns sewn together from deconstructed elements of his uncle’s wardrobe – vintage tailoring recycled into something feminine and dramatic. However, manufacturers were nonplussed at the idea of creating pieces that involved 25 different textiles. Marras didn’t care, and today, in addition to designing a commercial line that sells globally, he creates one-off couturelike pieces at home, in what he calls ‘the Laboratorio’.
When it came to decorating the house, M arr as wanted to create a bohemian, relaxed atmosphere. ‘I wanted it to be a place where some- one picks up a book, looks at a painting, embroiders or draws, takes photo - graphs, writes, rummages through piles of magazines, drinks a coffee and eats a cake that looks like a jewel.’ All of which might, one imagines, represent an average day for him and Patrizia.
The location of the house is significant, and not just because Marras was born and grew up nearby. His love of all things Sardinian, and the island’s history, have shaped his thinking and approach to design. ‘Phoenician, Byzantine, Arabic, Catalan, Spanish and French influences have made us what we are today – the language, the way we think, the way we dress,’ he explains, ‘The Sardinian “costume” is fascinating for its variety, for the structural, decorative and chromatic elements.’
The late Sardinian artist Maria Lai has inspired Marras ‘more than any
other person’. Famously, one of Lai’s earliest memories was watching her grandmother darn sheets; she imagined she was writing fairy tales to tell her as she worked. Lai went on to create art using textiles, knots and yarn and her influence is evident in Marras’s aesthetic.
‘Her works possess a rare beauty,’ he says, standing in front of one of her complex yarn pieces, which hangs in the house. ‘Maria installed this piece here, and it’s very precious. I also have many of her embroidered books and maps. She marked my entire approach to art and life.’
History and art aside, the warm climate also makes for an enviable lifestyle. ‘I grow orchids on the terrace,’ he says, gesturing at the flowers across the room. ‘A florist friend of mine uses them for his displays. I love nature and I like the idea of a house without
‘I like the idea of a house without boundaries, with no inside and out’
boundaries, with no inside and out.’
Marras also grows lush swathes of edible plants in the garden, using the native herb elicriso, fennel and wild asparagus in suppers for friends.
‘Cooking has nostalgic qualities,’ he says. ‘Sardinian grandmothers and mothers used to make egg-shaped bread from aniseed dough and lay them out in baskets, wrapped up in linen. I love to cook with the same affection.’
The house may be a kind of evolving gallery space, but the couple have brought up two children, Efisio and Le o, here. Fashion i s continually created in the studio, but that aforementioned bread is also baked in the kitchen, both of which fuel the family’s imagination.
‘I remember one day, when he was very young, Leo brought me an old, worn-out tennis ball and said, “This is for you, Dad. I know you’ll like it, it looks like a work of art,”’ Marras recalls. ‘And he was right. I used that ball as inspiration for a whole collection.’