Antonio Marras was born in Alghero, in Sardinia, land that has always deeply influenced his aesthetic.
His fashion debut was the result of a lucky chance. In 1987 a fashion house in Rome asked him to design a prêt-à-porter collection. Their invitation was due to his dual baggage of skills: cultural, he has always involved himself in every form of artistic/creative expression – and technical. The latter is based on his know-how of materials and forms, which he developed within his family’s business of a number of shops they owned in Alghero.
He has a solid base to create the first collection that bears his name: in 1996 he was invited to present a defilè couture in Rome, in which there are key elements of his style: attention to craftsmanship, Sardinia as a starting point inspiration that never comes to the banality of folklore, the leitmotif of the "ligazzio rubio" (in Sardinian, the red string) that becomes the trademark of his style, a real "fil rouge". Later, in Milan, the first time of his prêt-à-porter: the collection contains all the elements that make up his poetics. And then the taste of the contrast caught: the burns on precious fabrics, lacy gauze and sumptuous embroidery, exposed edges and brocades combined with the perception of contemporary, elements of great decorative richness, grafted onto vintage clothes, mix-match of rich and poor, masculine and feminine, decoration and structure, form and function.
In parallel there is the experimentation of the Laboratory and Limited Series line. Handmade clothes in the large studio house of the designer of Alghero, works that preserve the charisma of authenticity, because they are limited edition and can serve as starting points for models that will converge in the first line.
In 2003 he was invited by the French group LVMH to become artistic director of the Kenzo maison that will remain Antonio's traveling companion for eight years, until 2011. In May 2007 was born the second line I'M ISOLA MARRAS, which debuts with the Fall / Winter 2008/2009 season. Not really a second line, but a more immediate and decoded Marras world. In Milan, Antonio realizes his Headquarter. In all these years, however, Marras will make a very important choice, sentimental but also artistic: will not give up living where he grew up, from Alghero moving to Milan and Paris, to Alghero, always looking for creativity, inspiration, material for his expressive universe.
His work as a stylist always takes him on a journey, but he persists in living in Sardinia, aware that his strength comes from the island. In Alghero he lives in a large house-laboratory, on a hill overlooking the sea, with all his family-tribe that actively participates in creative work.