Maria Mulas Reinvents Herself as Fashion Designer for RRUNA

Maria Mulas, the Italian photographer born in 1935 in Manerba del Garda, has launched a fashion collection for RRUNA, a brand founded in 2014 that commissions limited-edition garments from international artists. The mini-collection, titled Camera Red, consists of three pieces: a coat inspired by Alberto Burri's Plastiche, trousers referencing Mark Rothko's Color Fields, and a self-portrait gilet. The coat features three layers—a sleeveless linen acetate tunic, a red casentino wool overcoat with leather inserts, and a PVC raincoat—that can be worn separately or combined. The trousers are made of cotton-silk blend in petroleum blue with a high-waisted palazzo cut. The gilet uses a black-brown double-face technical fabric with a transversal zipper and circular stitching on the hood, referencing Mulas's own photograph of a mannequin with a crosshair on its forehead. RRUNA produced a short film for the Burri coat, directed by the artistic duo VERSUS (Desiderio and Cristiano Carotti), featuring dancer and choreographer Olimpia Fortuni. The film was entered in the Best Film section of the third Fashion Film Festival Istanbul in November 2016. Mulas, known for her architectural and portrait photography—including images of Henry Moore, Keith Haring, Christo, Bruce Nauman, Lea Vergine, Louise Bourgeois, and Andy Warhol—brings her visual sensibility to fashion, treating garments as sculptural objects.