The eclectic and uncoventional Italian designer Antonio Marras spoke about himself, his love for art, craftsmanship and unconditioned love for his work and people.
During the latest edition of Lineapelle in February 2026, an international trade fair specializing in leather goods and accessories, Antonio Marras, renowned Italian fashion designer and costume designer, often reluctant to give interviews, met with international leather goods insiders and students during “Fashion, Market, and Future,” a public meeting hosted by Mariella Milani, Italian fashion journalist.
Born in Alghero, where he creates and produces his collections with the help of local artisans, the eclectic designer spoke spontaneously and informally about his career path. Differently from many other designers, his training was not in fashion schools. Similarly, he doesn’t consider himself as a designer-emperor. He feels different from the stereotype of the “créateur,” as designers are called in France, and, as Marras ironically puts it, are considered absolute rulers deciding the fate of their employees.
“Despite having been through three decades of fashion, I come from the suburbs, from the borders of the empire. I am someone who comes from Alghero, arriving first in Rome and then in Milan, following a path that is contrary to common logic,” explains Marras, who launched his first collection in 1987 and later followed experimental paths, launching his first brand, Sans Titre, consisting solely of white shirts, in 1996, and then the ready-to-wear brand that bears his name in 1999. Then, since 2022, the brand has belonged to Oniverse, formerly known as the Calzedonia holding, an Italian apparel and underwear group that reached €3.7 billion in revenues in 2025. Along with pret-à-porter, it offers fragrances, underwear, leather accessories and bags, sneakers and more.
“I have always acted on impulse and irrationality. I didn’t attend fashion schools, but I studied accounting,” he says, although he never put his studies into practice. “Rather, I am a jack of all trades, and I am certain about one thing––I want to accomplish what I have in mind. In fact, fashion has been a way for me to engage with art, dance, cinema, and theater—the passions and companions in my life that have driven me and stimulated my creativity,” he underscores.
He cannot answer the question, “Where do you get your inspiration?” On the contrary, for him, creativity is something he does not know and does not understand. He is aware that a designer, in the most conventional sense of the term, is someone who knows how to see and enhance aspects of reality that others do not notice and knows how to make them perfect, but for him, everything is different. “I need to work all the time: during holidays, on Sundays… I have to fill the empty days, whatever I touch,” he says.
“And then—you’ll laugh—but I was born a minimalist. I create clean surfaces, clean lines, folds, and pleats, all perfect, but then I dirty them because they are beautiful but boring. I love what is opposite to me,” he says, explaining how traditional Sardinian clothes are complex, rich in an infinite number of details, layers, and elements.
“Alghero is an island within an island because Catalan is spoken here. The traditional Sardinian costumes are also extraordinary. Each one is a masterpiece. There can be seven embroidered petticoats, bustiers, pockets, buttons, embroidered shirts, all worn together…like an entire wardrobe worn by a single woman,” he continues.
On the contrary, he appreciates the exact opposite. “I have always been attracted to the divine purity and simplicity of the kimono, made of pure lines and volumes: a kimono is made of a rectangle [for the main part of the garment] and two small squares for the sleeves.” And it is perhaps because of his great passion for Japanese culture that, without any recommendation or encouragement, but only thanks to the strength of his vision and passion, he became creative director of Kenzo from 2003 to 2011, in years when diametrically opposed cultures such as Parisian culture dialogued with the big names in Japanese fashion such as Miyake, Comme des Garçons’ Kawakubo, and Yamamoto.
However, unlike French “createurs,” who were considered gods who could dispose of their team’s destiny, once he joined a large group such as LVMH (to which Kenzo has belonged since 1993), he never cut anyone’s job.
“When I arrived there, I didn’t fire anyone. In fact, I even brought back those who were already on the verge of being fired, such as a girl on maternity leave. I worked with extraordinary people, building close personal relationships of friendship and affection, and then they went on to hold important positions at Prada or Ralph Lauren, to name a few.”
For him, every collection and every fashion show starts with a story that can come from, for example, a film, a book, or an encounter, or from a painting, a ballet, or anything that triggers his imagination. “What I like best is going into the archives of fabric makers, researching books, scraps of fabrics, and fragments of objects to build a collection.
“To do all this, creativity is very important, but you need the support of an organization of people, minds, and the intelligence of people who are like-minded. Creativity can never belong to one person, but is a chain and is never an end in itself. The designer alone counts for nothing. He needs a pattern maker, someone who researches fabrics and accessories, not to mention the whole process that follows from the prototype to the production of the garments that will go in stores,” he says.
In times like these, there are brands that are struggling, and many CEOs are pushing their creative departments to focus on quiet luxury rather than creativity, but for Marras, distinctions need to be made.
“I understand that there are handmade sweaters that cost €5,000. On the other hand, in large chain stores, you can find sweaters that cost €150 at most, or you can find the same cashmere sweater in 47 colors. What is true is that no one needs anything else in their closet and that often people prefer to invest in a trip, a spa treatment, or dinner at a high-end restaurant. However, I believe that you need to fall in love with something, to see and touch an item when you enter a store,” he says, explaining how crucial experience is—as he teaches his stores’ staff.
Marras believes in the importance of recovering the past, seen through the lens of the present: “The past is a forge, an inexhaustible source, and a mine of ideas and inspiration that, of course, must be translated into the present. That’s why I have a great supplier who provides me with industrial quantities of military parkas, which we then wash, reshape, resew, and embroider. This is the stylistic signature that has always distinguished us.”
He employs embroiderers who, until recently, made trousseaus and who personalize his garments in a unique and ever-changing way for each piece. “When you know you’re wearing a garment like this, you know it will never be identical to another. It’s the manual process that makes it different and unique,” he explains.
“Once a customer said to me, ‘When I put my hands in my pockets, I can feel the grains of sand.’ I thought that was a wonderful compliment. I believe that craftsmanship is one of the characteristics that distinguish Made in Italy and companies like those found here at Lineapelle, which have made their fortune from it.”
Many other ideas emerged from the conversation. Talking about rationality, irrationality, and AI, but for the Sardinian designer, the heart plays a central place in his life.
“I took a trip to Auschwitz, and I believe that all young people should go and see that place because we cannot be detached from what is happening around us even today. For me, working with my heart is fundamental. The heart is a recurring motif in my work, such as my recent theater piece called ‘Mio cuore’ (My Heart). I understand that there is often an inner conflict in each of us between the heart and the brain, but it is the heart that drives me to do everything I do,” concludes Marras.
Maria Cristina Pavarini
