Francesco Murano deserves a bigger stage. Fresh off the whirlwind experience as one of the 2025 LVMH Prize finalists, the designer looked poised and confident backstage at his spring show, determined to leverage the added visibility that international spotlight has given him.
The collection — titled “Kinesis,” the Greek word for movement — summed up his urgency to combat stillness, perhaps a reflection of the times we’re living in with their overload of content and news often leading to paralysis.
With Murano the narrative always unfolds around body and space, and how the two engage with one another, here explored via garments that anticipated the movement before it happened.
Sashes of fabrics protruded from handkerchief dresses, flimsy strings jutted from asymmetrical miniskirts and halterneck tops, draped see-through organza was plied into bias-cut shirtdresses, which seemed to suggest the hectic pace — and fleeting quality — of contemporary life. Even bulky trenchcoats and leather harem pants that looked stiff when still sailed handsomely down the runway.
Where in the past Murano explored restraint and balance — think of fall’s quest for symmetry — here he seemed to break free, embracing chaos for fashion that encapsulated languid, intimate sensuality in motion rather than statuesque beauty.
This pretty detour suggested evolution, self awareness and ultimately control of his vision.