Marni Spring/Summer 2027

Meryll Rogge’s second collection for Marni pushes further into the awkward, colourful side of the house, but this time with a stronger interest in what happens beneath the surface. Exposed linings, cut-outs, deconstructed seams and garments that appear partially turned inside out give the collection a deliberately unfinished quality. It is a useful direction for Marni, a label whose identity has always been rooted in the tension between beauty and oddness, although Rogge occasionally allows the quirkiness to overwhelm the refinement.

The womenswear is built around a slender, tubular silhouette, with leather and duchesse satin shift dresses forming the clearest foundation. Some are punctured by chest cut-outs held in place with oversized belts, while others are decorated with plastic discs or incorporate the outline of a bra directly into the garment. The effect is playful without becoming conventionally pretty. Rogge understands that Marni’s femininity has never needed to be polished, and these pieces work precisely because they make familiar ideas of dressing up slightly uncomfortable.

Colour and texture do much of the remaining work. Retro checks sit alongside wallpaper-like prints, technical windbreakers and striped knits scattered with tiny rows of sequins. A trio of shaggy goat-fur coats and leather tailoring provide moments of more traditional luxury, but the collection is generally less interested in showing off expensive materials than in creating visual friction between them. That makes the collection feel younger and somewhat grungier, though there are moments when the deliberate roughness begins to look more accidental than designed.

Menswear ultimately feels slightly more resolved, particularly in its combination of flat-front trousers, snake-print belts, halterneck knitwear and boxy tailoring. The closing leather shift worn by Mariacarla Boscono, finished with arcs of aquamarine beading, neatly connected Rogge’s new language to Marni’s history without becoming nostalgic. SS27 suggests that Rogge understands what makes Marni distinctive — colour, eccentricity, unexpected proportions and a certain refusal to behave — but the next challenge is knowing when to stop. The collection has personality in abundance; what it needs now is a little more editing.