Max Mara (Q1089)
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Italian fashion company
- MaxMara
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Max Mara |
Italian fashion company |
|
Statements
1981
Designer
1951
founder
designer
John Singer Sargent’s celebrated 1889Portrait of Madame Xfeatured as the centerpiece of Ian Griffiths’s pre-fall moodboard; he said he was captivated by its fashionable appeal at an exhibition of the Gilded Age master at London’s Tate Britain. Depicted in a black velvet gown with a revealing (for the era) heart-shaped neckline, the alabaster-skinned French socialite—a great beauty of apparently questionable repute—embodied the epitome of Edwardian elegance. Griffiths envisioned her indulging a life of luxury, moving between the velvety ambiance of her boudoir and leisurely promenades in the leafy shadows of gazebos.As the collection will land in stores in May, Griffiths wanted it to “feel fresh and light.” Silhouettes were neat, enhanced by a restrained palette of ivory and emerald green, offset by rich black tones. Bows appeared throughout as graceful refrain, adorning the front of a cropped jacket, accenting the shoulder of a sleek one-shoulder jumpsuit, or rendered as a print on a tailored minidress and a crisp, oversized shirt. They also added an exuberant touch at the neckline of a short trapeze dress crafted from emerald taffeta.Peplums (“sharp as a swallow’s tail,” as per Griffiths’s definition) hinted at a touch of Edwardiana, featured on a cinched white poplin shirt and at the back of a black trench coat. The plunging décolletage of Madame X was reimagined as a heart-shaped neckline on a sleek black sheath dress, while abstract floral prints were eye-catching on a flowing silky skirt and a coordinated set of soft trousers paired with an off-the-shoulder top. “Indulging ourselves is important,” Griffiths remarked. “It’s about joy, and a dash of capriciousness.” Fashion, after all, is a form of presentation, with the outfits we wear speaking volumes about who we are, not unlike a portrait.
16 December 2024
Ian Griffiths got thinking about the cultural marginalization of science in favor of the arts after reading—and, okay, watching—Lessons in Chemistry. Backstage he pondered: “Why do people dismiss science and math so much when there is such a strong parallel between what a scientist does and what we in design do: imposing order on chaos? What’s the difference between E equals MC squared and a Marcel Breuer armchair? In some ways there is no difference.”And with that eureka moment this excellent designer—whose employment at Max Mara since 1987 is something many houses stuck on the creative director carousel must envy—got cooking. Griffiths’s process tends to take in a female protagonist, and this time he struck upon Hypatia, the overlooked (of course) Alexandrian polymath. “People complained that there's not enough time to experiment anymore,” said Griffiths, relishing his words. “But I don't think this is true: we took a completely new approach to developing this collection.”That approach was to take the parabolas of Hypatia and the geometry of Pythagoras, and then develop a formula of design that enabled their addition to Max Mara. The results were multiple and marvelous. A few examples included the brown knit dress, one-shouldered, whose ribs arced in a strict but languid parabola across the body, framing a circular cut-out at the waist. A later gray knit companion piece included two shallow oval cut-outs above the hip bone: as their wearer moved these blinked as if delivering a message in code.Darting was promoted from behind-the-scenes to center stage: these angled planes worked to define the silhouette of the garments and echo the geometry of the women within them. On a gabardine work jacket the storm flap was buttoned back on the collar to form a perfect equilateral ornament. A nice contrast to these precision pieces were the pants and jackets in silks as crumpled as the scrunched up papers in a physicist’s wastebasket.At first sight this was a typical Max Mara collection; there was camel, there was cashmere, there was tailoring. Every piece overlapped via a median of exceptional neutrality, outstanding garments that never strived to stand out. But Griffiths’s empirical conceit was a plus.
19 September 2024
Falling under the spell of Venice is the easiest thing—the city’s aura is bewitching. “It’s a magical place, said Ian Griffiths, “at the crossroad between the East and the West. It’s where luxury was born, Marco Polo was a trading genius who seven centuries ago introduced Western culture to the opulence of the Far East through the Silk Road.”Max Mara traveled to La Serenissima as an homage to the curiosity and spirit of adventure that brings about discovery and evolution. The show was held at Palazzo Ducale, a gothic masterpiece so sumptuous that John Ruskin, in his bookThe Stones of Venice, described it as “the central building of the world.” No fashion show has ever before been granted access to its spectacular salons. Griffiths sounded rightly proud that the company’s reputation had been able to open such magnificent doors.Models paraded at dusk in the external loggia, against the backdrop of St. Marks square. It couldn’t have been more breathtaking. From the front row, Kate Hudson, Brie Larson, and Alexa Chung looked rightly impressed. Although the collection hinted at the Venitian flair for opulence and extravagance, the historical references were threaded lightly. “We’re not doing a costume drama for the BBC,” joked Griffiths at a preview. His intention, he said, was to design “a wardrobe that expresses a slightly debonair, adventurous, almost swashbuckling feel, to be worn by a confident modern woman with a certain swagger.”Silk-tasseled belts cinched voluptuous, sweeping cashmere coats at the waist, caftans and billowing dusters had a breezy presence, and capes were enveloping like tabarri, the traditional cloaks worn by Venitian gentlemen in the 18th century. Sleeves were a focal point— balloon-shaped, cut like asymmetrical handkerchiefs, or else slender with contrasting cuffs. The silhouette was kept long and lean, or short and leggy; as always with Max Mara, decoration was used sparsely, yet the collection had a more elaborate feel than usual, due to the gentle luxury of jacquards inspired by Byzantine mosaics, and the translucency of organzas reprising the golden curlicues of Eastern ornamentations. The temperate decorative tone was offset by a palette of neutrals, and obviously by lots of camel, that, after seasons of lesser prominence, “was back with a vengeance,” said Griffiths.
The collection’s pièces de résistence came at the end; the four final looks were replicas of the designer’s degree collection at Manchester University 40 years ago, where he interpreted the theme of Venice working with a textile designer who graduated with him. “The samples from that collection were still intact in my attic in London,” he said. “The patterns at the time were made with Ossie Clark. They still looked perfect, so we decided to reproduce them for this occasion, and they sort of set the tone for the entire collection.” A billowy cape, a round-shaped cocoon, a layered asymmetrical halter dress, and a dramatic opera coat fit for a Fortuny muse were surmounted by towering matching turbans, courtesy of Stephen Jones. They definitely had an edge. “I’m proud that after 40 years they still look relevant. What I design now is a lot more conventional.”
11 June 2024
Whether by design or not, Max Mara established an excellent precedent at its show this morning. Thanks to a traffic accident on the corner of Via Piranesi we were—just as at Marras yesterday morning—running far later than we should have before the first show of the day had even begun. Yet inevitably a considerable crowd was milling dozily around the runway enjoying doing everything but taking their seats. Wonderfully, the music started up and the first model came out, all the way down to the photographers (fashion’s true heroes). Even then the flotsam and jetsam were so self-involved that at first they barely noticed something was up. Finally they did, and like a DJ dropping a rewind, this Max Mara show finally got on the road.Ian Griffiths cleverly shaped this collection around Colette, the Joan Didion of the Belle Epoque. Praising “the spareness of her writing,” he craftily added: “she arouses these great passions but with very simple language and straightforward words. It struck me that that is what Max Mara does with design.” Another shared chord was that Colette’s and Max Mara’s respective syntax is most potent when considering as its subject a woman who has reached a point of maturity and experience, and who lives life in liberation, fully.All this unfolded on the finally blank page of Max Mara’s runway in a collection that was both grown-up and sensual. Flannel all-in-one rompers based on 1920s camisoles and camiknicker sets were worn out in black or under tailoring in camel, over tights. Fagotting-stitch seams on tweed version were edged in leather. The cable-knit in a gray dress flowed in a gentle arc from shoulder down across the body to calf. Narrow skirts featured triple volants at the back (a detail that recurred at both Prada and Moschino later today). Should anyone be developing a film adaptation of Stephen Vizinczey’sIn Praise Of Older Women—and they should—the costume was all here and ready to perform.Other less racy (for Max Mara) but still stimulating details included the fetching zigzag finishing on many of the cashmere pieces and the long cardigan outerwear knits. A double breasted charcoal overcoat in cashmere and a full-shouldered black dress with cinched waist featured cocoon back details based on memories of Griffith’s own wild youth (specifically his graduate collection under the tutelage of Ossie Clark). As Colette’s great protagonist Cheri put it: “I love my past. I love my present.
I’m not ashamed of what I’ve had, and I’m not sad because I have it no longer.”
22 February 2024
Pre-fall collections, reasoned Ian Griffiths, are about transitional pieces “that you dream of when summer holidays are almost over and you’re ready again for the buzz of the city, looking at the rentrée with anticipation and optimism.” The Max Mara designer was in for optimism—a sentiment the world is in dire need of today.One of Griffiths’s favorite museums is New York’s Whitney, which houses Alexander Calder’s artwork Cirque Calder, a 1931 miniature rendering of a circus with tiny acrobats, sword eaters, and ringmasters made in humble materials like, wire, wood, and cork. “Who doesn’t love the energy of the circus?” he reasoned. “You cannot possibly have any gloomy thoughts about it, or any convoluted philosophizing.”The collection was infused with an upbeat, cheerful vibe. After the colorful spring show, the palette here was concise, scaled down to bright red, black, white and, this being Max Mara, a profusion of camel. (Griffiths wittily refers to Reggio Emilia, where the company’s headquarters are located, as Camelandia). Pieces were easy and sassy, with a young spirit and “a bit of razzmatazz to indulge yourself.” Stripes, polka dots, stars, and leopard spots made for eye-catching graphics that graced pareo miniskirts worn with tucked-in blazer bodysuits, leggy all-in-ones, and pretty panier shorts paired with flared-peplum, bell-sleeved tailored jackets.A Max Mara collection cannot miss a belted trench coat; the updated pre-fall version was in a soft caramel shade, cut slightly oversized with contrasting cable-knitted sleeves. Another new shape was a biker jacket elongated into a city coat zippered sideways; on a similar note, a short double-breasted black coat was made in see-through techno mesh. Max Mara wants to speak to a younger audience, so pre-fall was designed to appeal to wider demographics. “We’re offering a collection to women of different ages,” Griffiths elucidated. “And to women who want to look younger.” Who doesn’t want that?
18 December 2023
Formed during World War I and mobilized anew for World War II, the Women’s Land Army recruited up to 80,000 females to farm while Britain’s men took up arms. Along with the women working in munitions factories, as nurses, in auxiliary military service, as air raid wardens, and in many other vital non-combatant roles besides, the so-called Land Girls were a vital part of the war effort. By fortunate necessity they also in part catalyzed the emancipatory precedent for women to take their place in the workforce.The Women’s Land Army proved a fertile source of inspiration for Ian Griffiths at Max Mara this morning. The collection that flourished from it was cultivated rather than rustic—more Phoebe Waller-Bridge channeling Monty Don shot by Sam Mendes at Sissinghurst and less tilling for beetroot—but it contained many authentically researched touches while also working wonderfully as a luxuriously utilitarian woman’s wardrobe for now.Bill Cunningham bleu de travail in various garment-dyed shades of cotton was applied to long Don-style work jackets, backless narrow-cut apron-front pencil dresses, double-kneed narrow-cut work pants, and bellows-pocketed and epauletted shirt-skirts and overalls. The palette pivoted to rosy pinks as Griffths pruned his hemlines high with patch-pocketed hot pants under a tunic and a romper. Gorgeous leather-edged canvas gardening bags and bridle-leather binocular cases were tucked under the arms of high-waisted green blousons and washed cotton wide-lapel varieties of Max Mara’s heritage-specialism coat. A wide-gauge knit jersey in green featured irregular cotton patches on one shoulder and the opposite arm in tribute to the source-era’s make-do-and-mend ethos.A highish-hem fishtail parka over wide-cuffed shirt signaled the switch towards more autumnal shades, and the inevitable harvest of core-to-the-house camel. The hotpants and work jackets we’d seen earlier were iterated as knits, and the camel coat in a generously-volumed satin finished fabric. Jodhpur pants, a parachute-strapped corset and what looked like a Pacific-theater US officer’s tunic rather widened the scope of operations before a series of monochrome chintz looks closed this bountiful Max Mara show. Idealized 1940’s Ipswich by way of Emilia Romagna, this classy collection was clearly close to Griffiths’s gardener’s heart.
21 September 2023
With less than two weeks until we hitmidsommar—the Northern hemisphere’s longest day—Ian Griffiths migrated Max Mara to Stockholm to revel in the light. Even before this resort show began in the City Hall’sBlå hallen, site of the annual Nobel Banquet, the designer proved as reflective as the sun-dappled Baltic waters outside.Being Max Mara, an exclusively womenswear brand founded by Achille Maramotti in 1951 to empower through clothing a new generation of economically emancipated females, the collection demanded a fiersomely feminocentric origin story. Griffiths—whose Stephen Fry-esque erudition he confesses is at least in part powered by Google—pieced this together in several parts. He began by nodding to Vikings (he claimed evidence their pillaging was gender-equitable) and folklore, then the “troublesome lesbian” Queen Christina of Sweden, then the progressive female protagonists of Ibsen (sometimes played by the supremely witchy Italian actress Eleonora Duse) and the playwright’s contemporary real-life art-collecting Stockholm notables, and then finally Selma Lagerlöf. In 1909 this first-wave suffrage activist and prolific author became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize, for her writing.Griffiths’s enduring skill is to compose his narratives from multiple and sometimes oppositional sources—complicated stuff—but then refine them into cohesive collections that appeal whether you know (or care) about that source material or not. He said: “The problem you face when you combine all these intellectual concepts is how do you express them in clothes? How does a shirt express the idea of a modern metropolitan self?” To ask this question proved the start of its answer. So despite this Scandi show’s swirling melange of ingredients the clothes looked light, sophisticated, and more overtfully youthful than your average Max Mara collection.One effective way of simplifying the message was to render the collection in Ingmar Bergman monochrome for all but the show’s final section. The folkloric elements veered fromhygge(Fair Isle snowflakes on waffled knit ponchos) to pagan (paper floral wreaths). A drawstring cord belt built into a house signature cashmere coat, this one with peaked collar and cut in the palest shade of camel, was edged with the pompoms that delivered bouncy punctuation across the collection. Similarly a sleeveless tailored jacket was frogged with folk-sourced fringed tassels.
11 June 2023
“What’s the relevance of the 18th century to today?” That was the question that began Ian Griffiths’s journey towards today’s runway answer at Max Mara. To find it, Griffiths engaged his tried and tested creative protocol of fixing upon one historically sidelined but contemporaneously central female creative from the period he was scrutinizing to act as a personification of his thesis. In this case it was Émilie du Châtelet, a burningly intelligent French marquess mathematician who translated Isaac Newton into French—correcting a few of Newton’s errors on the way—and was for years passionately beloved by Voltaire (although he ended up with his widowed niece).Griffiths seized upon du Châtelet as emblematic of a period of enlightenment in which female intelligence was increasingly acknowledged by the patriarchy, even as the female wardrobe remained constricting, apotropaic, and controlled. He said: “the fashion at the time was completely not enlightened. So I was imagining how she might have dressed if she had freedom to and how that would translate into today.” He also self-referred, as he on occasion does via Instagram, to consider his own club kid days as a New Romantic—a subculture that seized upon the Baroque in order to evolve from the less humorous,sans culottesensibility of punk.That meticulous scene-setting translated into a Max Mara collection that was newly romantic. It either adapted 18th century menswear pieces, like the opening teddy banyan coat, or modernized 18th century womenswear—like look six’s miniaturized pannier skirt in camel brocade with a fishtail detail at the back hem. A long rib knit dress coat and a trio of teddy coats were worn slung over the right shoulder courtesy of an inbuilt strap, which Griffiths said was a contemporary military styling trick, but for men only. Pannier pockets were also used to bolster a double-fronted gray cashmere tunic dress—more officer material—and a black brocade skirt worn over a patent corset belt and a sheer top. Evening pieces came with detachable Watteau backs.Griffiths offered Max Mara versions of contemporary paradigm garments that included a dreamy camel parka, a full length liner coat, and a velvet bomber with frogging. Some models teamed their lug-soled boots with shorts. This was not a wardrobe Émilie du Châtelet would have recognized, but she would, you suspect, have been into it.
23 February 2023
If Marilyn Monroe were alive today, she’d look fabulous in one of Max Mara’s enveloping Teddy Bear coats—at least that is what Ian Griffiths believes. “We share the same MM initials,” he said at a pre-fall appointment. “But there’s also a symmetry between a sex symbol like she was, yearning to stretch beyond her sex-bomb persona, and the intelligent Max Mara woman, who sometimes wants to let go of her more sensible side.”Griffiths focused on a year Monroe spent in New York, away from the Hollywood studios, when she was eager to mingle with the city’s intellectual and creative milieu. That time in her life was the subject of Elizabeth Winder’sMarilyn in Manhattan: Her Year of Joy, a book that inspired Griffiths to work on a collection he called Iconoclassics. “Of course the epithet is overused, but I truly believe Marilyn deserves it,” he said, noting that her cultural significance is still so strong even young people are drawn to her.Cue this season’s curvaceous jeans ensembles in soft makeup shades, workwear-inspired mechanics’ overalls, and man-sized paperbag-waist carpenter pants, rendered in chic radzimir or duchesse satin. The Teddy Bear coat, which is now 10 years old, has been rendered in a new raspberry hue referencing the makeup shades Marilyn favored. Lipsticks, nail varnishes, and mascaras were printed on languid silk pajamas, which she might’ve styled nonchalantly under one of Max Mara’s iconic camel coats. “This collection is really about icons on icons,” joked Griffiths.To that end, he re-edited two early examples of Max Mara’s coats, which graced the cover of the forward-thinking Italian magazineAriannain 1961. The neat belted wrap style in camel-colored cashmere would’ve fit right in Marilyn’s everyday wardrobe. There is a famous photo of her in the New York subway in which she wears a beige coat. “I didn’t want to emphasize red carpet options,” explained Griffiths. “Just things she would’ve worn to hang out with her artsy friends.”Yet a modicum of glamour cannot be avoided where Marilyn is concerned, so a body-hugging draped dress in champagne-colored taffeta, as well as a curvy black number in techno jersey and a sensual slip dress with sequins under a layer of georgette were also in the picture. If Griffiths wanted to make the case about Max Mara being a brand imbued with iconic connotations, regardless of the overused status of the epithet, he hit the mark.
16 December 2022
Ian Griffiths is becoming the patron saint of overlooked and underestimated historical “muses.” Following his resort reassessment of fabulous-’50s Lisbon radical Natália Correia, Griffiths today turned his restorative eye two decades earlier. It focused on Renée Perle, a lover and much-snapped subject of early alpha-photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. “But she also painted all these self-portraits that were absolutely panned by the critics,” said Griffiths. Then there was Eileen Gray, who designed her own feminocratic ideal of the modernist house, the Villa E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, in 1929. This was much coveted by Le Corbusier, who painted murals in its interior while staying there and was sometimes even wrongly credited with its wonderful design. As Griffiths suggested, both women were cast as muses—objects of masculine inspiration—rather than artists who were themselves inspired. Said Griffiths, “Germaine Greer writes about this: Calling a woman a muse is a way of putting them in a box.”The irony in the benevolently meant result of Griffiths’s rehabilitation mission was that while seeking to recast Perle’s and Gray’s place in history—notice thehis—he was also to a degree reinforcing it. For there they were behind him as he spoke, fabulously frozen in time but pinned to his mood board like butterflies.Griffiths’s excavation of these histories allowed him to pitch this collection as a redemption song, but it also provided the designer, whose college tutor in the 1970s was Ossie Clark, to engage with gusto in the fashion conversations that echo between the 1930s and that decade. Another key muse on the mood board was David Bowie, who was most directly referenced in the high-waist, fall-front, double-button pants with a swooping boot cut. These looked wonderfully gamine below the carefully styled billowing shirting, further enforcing Griffiths’s elegantly expressed tour through ambiguously gendered garments. Other examples of his appropriation of often (or at least sometimes) masculinely ascribed codes of dress came in his adaptation of the classic French workwear uniform (much loved by Bill Cunningham) calledbleu de travail. Presented in a delicately washed lush indigo cotton drill, it was exemplary enough for this workwear-loving, male-identifying onlooker to immediately inquire after plus-size options, a testament perhaps to Griffiths’s precise execution of his study in neutrality.
This neutrality was given material form through the use of unwashed linen in variously undyed shades of oat.Yet it would have been remiss for a collection predicated on elevating unacknowledged female cultural protagonists to reject the full-blown “feminine,” and this was duly delivered in swooping backless dresses worn with doorframe-wide sun hats and a trio of swimwear-inspired citrus looks topped with Esther Williams–worthy swimming-cap hats. A closing bunch of hand-drawn floral gowns and separates, sometimes hitched to trailing bow-tied strips of organza, drew the veil on another dreamy Max Mara meander.
22 September 2022
It was 8:34 in the gardens of Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation this evening when the colorful parakeets that had been watching from the treetops suddenly stirred, shrieking into the sky. They had sensed the beginnings of a gust of Atlantic wind that ruffled the carefully set plumage of the curated pandemonium of parakeets watching below—a company including local clients and luminaries, Claire Danes, Lee Ji-ah, Lara Worthington, and influencers aplenty, plus a few drab pigeon writers. Most of all, this gust threw the full pleated taffeta skirt of a deep green shirtdress dramatically into the air around the runway as its model descended towards us, as if instead of walking she was dancing to the longing fado of the singer Carminho, who had just walked this Max Mara resort runway a few looks before.The house’s designer, Ian Griffiths, was touring this museum last year when he spotted a portrait of the poet and activist Natália Correia, a largely faded name (even domestically) who in the mid-20th century was at the center of Lisbon society. HerAnthology of EroticandSatirical Portuguese Poetrywas considered beyond the moral pale by the authoritarian (and of course male) “authorities” of her time. She also founded Bar Botequim, an intellectual salon and watering hole through which drifted names including Eugene Ionesco, Henry Miller, and Amalia Rodrigues, the Callas of fado.“She always rejected the title of muse,” said Griffiths, who was also inspired by her then (and in certain countries also now) refusal to be marginalized and controlled. “There is something very voluptuous and sensual—although never ribald—about her language and attitude to love and passion. She was extremely luxurious, on her own terms.”In dress, Correia favored shapes of the time, pencil skirts and wiggle dresses. By combining this mental image with the unapologetic passion and emotion of fado, Griffiths found his formula—one that was energized and vivified by the participation of Carminho. As well as providing the soundtrack and wearing the collection’s cipher garment, a black wiggle dress that channeled the spirit of Correia, Carminho had also performed at an opening dinner the night before. It was fork-droppingly beautiful, and demanded instant playlist inclusion.Very simplistically, the collection was divided into three sections.
The first was rooted in the house language of Max Mara—so we saw teddy coats, some cutely cut to gilets, the famous cashmere coat in a shortened version, great sensual tailoring, and those narrow but not constricting skirt shapes. Fishnets and cashmere hems trimmed with lines of pleating added that push-pull of repression and expression, or acceptance and repentance, that so dictates the swing of passion’s pendulum in a catholic context.
28 June 2022
Backstage at Max Mara today, Ian Griffiths presided over a moodboard pinned with images of the work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, who was closely affiliated with the Dada movement. Taeuber-Arp is currently the subject of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York showcasing a prodigious career that spanned genres: textiles, marionettes, interior and architectural designs, furniture, paintings, relief sculptures, and photographs. Griffiths said he was attracted by the way she invested even everyday objects with magic and mystery. “After the last two years, we’re craving magic,” he said. Active between the two World Wars, the Dadaists rejected nationalism and violence, which made her an all too apt muse on a day when Russia attacked Ukraine. Magic has been deferred once again; real life has come crashing in.Griffiths used the shapes of marionettes Taeuber-Arp made for a restaging of the 18th century play “The King Stag” as templates for his designs; they informed the bulbous silhouettes of short skirts and the articulated arms of sweaters. Whimsy was the desired effect of the teddy bear material, which he cut not just into oversized enveloping coats, but also full skirts both short and long, and even sweatpants. These pieces were juxtaposed by others with a more utilitarian bent. Parachute pants with zips up the calves had a smart adaptability; add a second-skin turtleneck and a tailored jacket and a woman would be ready for anything. All this marched out on gum-soled over-the-knee sock boots, which got the playful/practical balance that Griffiths was after exactly right.Of course, the Max Mara studio is at its best when its finessing a coat from double-face cashmere or another equally luxurious material. These were in ample supply, from a heathery belted robe style to a black officer’s coat to sportier aviators with double zippers.
24 February 2022
Always impeccably clad in a bespoke Savile Row pinstripe suit, Max Mara’s long-serving creative director Ian Griffiths is a gentleman of the old-world kind. When congratulated on his immaculate look, he graciously demurred. “I feel a bit constricted though.” There’s an Italian saying that goes “one must suffer to be beautiful,” but it surely doesn’t apply to Max Mara’s intelligent design, which is all about making women both beautiful and comfortable—no suffering necessary.“Intelligent” was a recurring term in Griffiths’s conversation, emphasizing a common quality pertaining to what he called the collection’s three “witnesses.” “They’re women of substance,” he said. How else to describe Fran Lebowitz, Patti Smith, and the young Kaia Gerber if not as being all gifted with abundant intellect, talent, and wit? They’re also defined by an individual sense of style, which relates to the classy essentiality of traditional masculine tropes. “Classic doesn’t have to be conservative,” said Griffiths. “In fact, it can be a way of dressing for a woman with a radical agenda.”Max Mara has always been about a democratic idea of fashion, as accessible and egalitarian as it is stylish, providing women with a wardrobe for the everyday based on supple tailoring of fine execution. This approach hasn’t wavered throughout the 30-plus years of Griffiths’s tenure at the label; it still seems utterly pertinent today.This season, the designer’s work around the tailored jacket, the building block not only of the collection but surely of his witnesses’ style repertoire, was particularly subtle and articulate. The offer was rich in updated versions of the navy blue traditional masculine blazer, which Griffiths is giving a younger edge via new proportions and a fresher styling perspective. In a sort of relaxed take on Jermyn Street’s sartorial savoir faire, the jacket was proposed in many iterations: slightly boxy and fluid in malleable double-faced jersey; precisely cut with the sleeves and the back made in dark denim; and juxtaposed with a sleeveless, double breasted, and straight-cut gilet. Boxer shorts, bermudas, and boy-cut trousers in bleached denim added to the lively spirit of the collection whose additional details included cuffed Oxford shirts, Texan boots worn with rolled-hem jeans, and smart trench coats.The offer was rounded out by an attractive variety of Max Mara’s signature greatcoats in shades of denim blue and camel.
Most noteworthy was a short cashmere car coat whose back and sleeves were actually cable knitted as in a jumper. Griffiths explained with a certain pride that it has taken several years to perfect the industrial technique needed to put together such different textures. He also highlighted the fact that the label’s coats are appreciated by men, with influencers apparently requesting samples of the classic versions. “It’s an indication which is coming full circle, as Max Mara originally borrowed the camel coat from the traditional masculine wardrobe,” he mused. “I think that in the end what’s important is what clothes represent and mean, and what they stand for. We stand for intelligence and knowledge, regardless of gender.”
15 December 2021
At Max Mara’s spring show last September, when most of us were still knee-deep in sweats, my colleague Luke Leitch asked, “Will the brave new world really be built in our lockdown-worn track pants?” Apropos of that heavily tailored collection, he concluded no. But fast-forward a year, and the pandemic has definitely changed our dressing habits: We’ve grown more accustomed to ease at the same time that we expect our clothes to stand up to the challenges our new lives throw at us. The evidence of that was on today’s Max Mara runway in clothes that took their shape and attitude not from officewear but workwear, much of it in rigid, dark-rinse denim.Creative director Ian Griffiths was backstage talking about Françoise Sagan’s masterpieceBonjour Tristesseand the Otto Preminger movie based on it in which Jean Seberg sports chambray with her swimwear. Griffiths chose the story for the way its main character travels in her mind, which is something we all did during the lockdowns. He called Sagan a beatnik in a bourgeois’s body, which just about sums up the push-pull of the two sides of this lineup. Max Mara is known for its excellent Italian-made outerwear. That hasn’t changed, but the double-face cashmeres that opened the show were shorter and swingier than usual, and the double-face cashmere dresses that accompanied them were essentially aprons, with big patch pockets included, instead of the standard-issue sheaths.On many of the looks, simple bandeaux in colors or materials that matched the jackets and skirts they were worn with stood in for more classic shirts. If underwear as outerwear seems more bohemian than feels authentic to Max Mara, the label is not alone in its embrace of the trend; bra tops are an obvious symbol of fashion’s turn for the casual. All in all, the collection had a sturdy sense of chic well judged for the present moment, the denim separates and pieces in the graphic lawn-chair stripes especially.
23 September 2021
“The longest is the loveliest,” are the final words of Truman Capote’s chapter on Ischia inLocal Color,his little-remembered early-phase 1950-published travel book. What Capote was describing as long and lovely was the spring that languorously blossomed into summer during his four-month stay on this volcanically lush island, a paradise that is geographically far larger than Capri but which has long been overshadowed by its Gulf of Naples neighbor’s eternally chichi reputation.This evening’s Max Mara resort show, inspired by Capote’s voyage to the less-traveled-to island, was the first-ever big-ticket fashion show held here. The precise location was a castellated hotel named the Mezzatorre, once a villa owned by Luchino Visconti, whose position on a promontory overlooking its own turquoise-watered, parasol-lined private bay would make any film director itch to shout, “Action.” Out on that water bobbed the very same New York 32 yacht that starred inThe Talented Mr. Ripley,its hull since repainted to a perfect shade of Tiffany.In fact, so picturesque and Slim Aarons–ishly beguiling was the setup here that you felt almost nervous on behalf of this Ian Griffiths–designed Max Mara collection—could the clothes possibly live up to the context? Thanks to that Capote starting point and the long and languid route Griffiths’s thinking followed from it, however, by the time his opening look appeared—a pale beige version of the house’s landmark 101801 coat cut not in camel cashmere but a treated “uncreasable” jersey, over a dress with a high and wide detachable collar, and the strapped espadrilles that ran through the show—the collection was 100% checked in to this destination.Capote spent six years writingIn Cold BloodforThe New Yorker,while by contrast Vogue Runway prefers its reviews be filed within three hours of showtime. So, in brief, the dots Griffiths joined began with Capote’s juvenile phase here, then connected ahead to his establishment as a social witness and chronicler meets claqueur to the 1950s and ’60s most beautiful and privileged, most particularly his “Swans.” Griffiths then zeroed in specifically on “The Last Swan” Marella Agnelli, the noble-born wife of Italy’s ultimate industrial superhero Gianni, who like most of the itinerant superrich of the time would linger at the Plaza Athénée or the Ritz in Paris during couture before flying south to await delivery of their new season garments, often on the Agnelli yacht in the Gulf of Naples.
The Athénée association and its flower-filled façade gave Griffiths the geranium color story that fizzed through this collection between more sober phases, while Capote sparked a train of thought that enabled those clothes to live so finely here.
29 June 2021
It is now 70 years since a driven young entrepreneur named Achille Maramotti founded Max Mara. As current designer Ian Griffiths noted, in 1951 Maramotti had envisaged the market for his fledgling coat factory as the wives of Italy’s male professionals—“and then they rose and they rose, and Max Mara rose with them. Now they’re doctors, they’re lawyers, they’re vice president of the United States.”To mark the parallel 70-year ascent of Max Mara as a byword for excellence in women’s professional power dressing and the rightful ascent of its customers to assume by merit positions of professional power, Griffiths imagined his runway a celebratory procession. The feel was heavily Anglocentric. This was because Max Mara has long looked to London for source codes. It also reflected Griffiths’s twin identities as a young punk kid in the British capital and, more recently, as a content rural gent in Suffolk. There was also a satisfying irony in the framing of a celebration of hard-won meritocracy in a format echoing the celebration of an inherently un-meritocratic British institution.Whether earned through merit or privilege, there were many pieces here to delight in possessing. The bomber jacket’s inherent functionality was lent tactility through renderings in camel cashmere and the house’s key Fozzie Bear–like teddy. A version of the classic house teddy-bear coat came in a new shade of khaki, and there was a spirited rendition of Max Mara’s canonical 101801 coat, first designed by Anne-Marie Beretta 40 years ago. A cashmere-face shearling worn north of a green alpaca sweater and patterned skirt looked like a potential nu-classic. Griffiths said that one oversized Aran sweater was made in 1.5 kilograms of cashmere.Country-casual outerwear shapes were rendered in alpaca finished to be thornproof (a function probably best not to test), while a classic waxed-style jacket with action shoulders was lined in that teddy fabric. Quilted gilets and liners were presented in camel hair—plus there was an amazing quilted green mantle in velvet—and tailoring was patterned in market-town tattersall check.Playing against the rural were organza kilts—more Camden punk than Highland Games—and skirts, sweats, T-shirts, and headscarves patterned with variations of original Max Mara graphics. (There was a heavy emphasis on llamas.
)Today’s digitally presented runway show might not have been lined with giddy, flag-waving crowds (too soon), but as a celebration of Max Mara’s platinum jubilee, it was splendid nonetheless.
25 February 2021
During lockdown, Ian Griffiths happened to watch a BBC documentary on Lee Miller, the multitalented American model turned photojournalist who became a war correspondent forVoguein the ’40s. “She has belonged to my pantheon of heroines since my days as a student at London’s Royal College of Arts,” said Griffiths during a showroom appointment. “Her life as a strong-willed, driven, independent woman resonates deeply with the values we embrace at Max Mara.”Miller’s life was rather well documented, so the designer poured over thousands of her photographs; taken mostly in black-and-white or in shades of gray, they inspired the pre-fall collection’s chic color palette. Miller modeled in the ’20s for the likes of Edward Steichen and George Hoyningen-Huene, swathed in couture. For her work as a reporter on the battlefields she obviously dressed in no-nonsense mannish military attire, while managing to keep her glam appeal intact. Riffing on this contrast, and drawing a parallel between the uniforms she wore on the war front and the urban uniforms Max Mara provides women for their daily lives today, Griffiths worked around a central theme he called combat tailoring. It seemed utterly appropriate for our present circumstances.The theme was translated into a series of tailored pieces in grisaille or Prince of Wales, which combined the utilitarian with the efficiently elegant—slightly oversized yet sharp-cut blazers worn with capacious side-pocketed drawstring cargo pants or with matching short fluttering skirts; dusters in light double-faced wool and roomy trench coats in silver-gray techno taffeta with a metallic shine; slender all-in-ones with a classy tailored edge.Miller’s more glamorous side was referenced in couture-inspired occasion dresses and blouses in polka-dotted silk gazar or in luminous fil coupé—different-scale spots apparently being one of her favorite motifs. Bows, big gathered sleeves, and flourishes added a dash of drama, hinting also at the more outgoing post-pandemic life we all crave, Griffiths included: “I believe that, when people’s lives will open up, we’ll want to dress stylishly but still comfortably,” he said. To emphasize the concept, he pointed out a floaty all-in-one in silvery fil coupé. “You could wear it to a party as if it were a long evening dress, but since it has a more active edge, worn with a pair of sneakers it can have a second life at the office,” he said.
“Because probably people are going to have fun thinking about what to wear to those board meetings!” Who would’ve thought that the office would replace parties or dinners as a social occasion to get excited about dressing up for? “The days when we used to think, Oh, I’m going to the office so let’s put on that old suit again—those days are gone,” said the designer. “People will pay attention and will definitely enjoy dressing up for the office.”Griffiths is probably to be believed—getting dressed to the nines to meet with colleagues at the coffee machine will be our new normal. Max Mara, with its clever mix of practicality and sophistication, has always provided women with plenty of smart options for the everyday; therefore, it seems to be in a rather good place for the times ahead. “Clothes with a long life span beyond a particular season is our way to be sustainable,” he said. To bring home his point, pride of place on the collection’s moodboard was given to an image from a Max Mara advertising campaign shot by Steven Meisel in 1999, featuring Carolyn Murphy resplendent in a tied-at-the-side white pantsuit. It looked very Lee Miller–esque indeed—and also quite modern. Near Meisel’s picture of Murphy, Griffith plastered a quote from the artist Jessie Mann, who was one of the commentators in the Miller doc: “We need examples of women like Miller. Women who are complicated and fully three-dimensional.” There seems to be no lack of similar examples out there today.
14 December 2020
Will the brave new world really be built in our lockdown-worn track pants? History suggests absolutely not, concluded Ian Griffiths back in March from his splendid stint of isolation in Suffolk, England. Today’s Max Mara show was held in the courtyard of the Pinacoteca di Brera, an ancient Milan gallery and art school that holds works by Raphael, Bellini, Caravaggio, Titian, and more. Shortly before the presentation, Griffiths said, “We started designing this collection at the beginning of lockdown. And it was a shot in the dark, because we had no idea at all if it would ever be produced or shown. Because I’d already started going through my library, and realized that I have almost a ridiculous amount of books about the Renaissance, my love for these painters was a starting point.” He was also influenced by an installation by Corin Sworn that won her the 2016 Max Mara Art Prize for Women, a piece that riffed on the sumptuously elaborate costumes worn by the commedia dell’arte performers who toured Italy during that post-plague period.A further consideration, he added, was that Max Mara itself was born during the great 20th-century postwar flourishing in Italy, a boom that was considerably fueled by the nation’s facility for making and marketing beautiful and desirable clothing. As Griffiths riffed: “That fashion explosion was in part thanks to the spreading of an idea of clothing based onla bella figura. As opposed to, say, French fashion, Italian fashion privileges things that make you look and feel your absolute best at all times. So the success of that boom was a consequence of the idea that by investing in something that made you feel your best, you were equipped to do your best…. And now I’m thinking about the women who are going to be striding out into this world to make it better than it was before.”Ergo, no track pants, although Griffiths did offer some fine, wide-cut drawstring and elasticized-waist options for those unable to face cold turkey. These accompanied several looks in which the designer incorporated hexagonal patches of brocade as a Renaissance-nodding decorative mosaic, sometimes on pieces of hybrid sportswear (a blouson, a fishtail parka) and sometimes at the front of attractive sweaters.
We saw a lot of arm work—blousing, long slashed sleeves, extended cuffs on a wonderful striped inversion of men’s shirting at the end—that was directly inspired by Renaissance-era fashion (as was the oft-shown off-the-shoulder neckline) yet which 500 years later looked fresh. The slashed-sleeve Max Mara camel cashmere coat was a minor masterpiece of the oeuvre in which this company is the greatest exponent, while double-face laser-cut bombers and parkas showed it is future facing, too. Color was muted, but when deployed, powerful: One of Griffiths’s loose-leg bella figura suits in periwinkle blue was especially refreshing to the eye. Perhaps the sole off note came thanks to the many document-size kangaroo pockets on the front of garments. These seemed destined to go unused as potential silhouette killers.As the models walked on their pointed flats across the ancient stones, we heard Italian pop star Mina sing “Ricominciare e poi Che senso ha?” (We start again, and then what’s the point?) over the sound system. Here, Griffiths and Max Mara presented a collection full of answers.
24 September 2020
Max Mara’s resort show was one of the pandemic’s fashion casualties: Planned to be staged in the gilded salons of the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg, it had to be canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. It would have been a rather extraordinary experience. The Moika Palace is one of the grandest among the city’s many stuccoed palazzos built in the 18th century with exquisite splendor by Italian architects. Full of inestimable art masterpieces displayed in ornate rococo staterooms and galleries, it’s also inhabited by dramatic dark memories: In its basement, Rasputin, the so-called Mad Monk, was famously murdered in 1916.Creative director Ian Griffiths is still under the spell of the Russian city, which he visited several times prepping for the canceled show. “What I love about St. Petersburg is that its architecture was designed as a rational, ordered single unit by the emperor Peter the Great,” he explained. “Its neoclassical design was beautifully executed with a kind of poetry to it. This angle—rationalism blended with poetry—was something we wanted to explore for Max Mara too. I wanted to do a collection that had an idea of good design and order, but also a kind of rhapsodic lyricism inspired by the city of Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky.”The designer was granted the honor of visiting the State Hermitage Museum’s archives, as he proudly explained during the collection’s presentation, held at Max Mara’s headquarters in Milan. The Romanovs’ clothes are kept there, as well as the sumptuous Yusupovs’tenues de masquerade, together with countless creations of breathtaking magnificence belonging to the Russian aristocracy. Such an opulent aesthetic being a far cry from Max Mara’s sensible, pared-down elegance, some sort of stylistic middle ground had somehow to be found. “We called the collection ‘Reason and Romance,’” said Griffiths, “as if it were the title of a Tolstoy novel.” It’s a dynamic that seems fit for the times we’re living in now. “What struck me is that this is precisely what seemed the right concept to be developed,” said Griffiths. “Practical, well-designed, useful clothing is what you have to do now from a design standpoint, but at the same time, a sense of the lyrical or the poetical is exactly what we need today, because we need more than ever the kind of psychological feel-good factor that beautiful, comforting clothes can give us. We need poetry whenever we can find it.
” On the collection’s mood board, portraits of Irina and Felix Yusupov—“I’ve got to know them very well,” said the designer, “as I’ve learned about everything there is to know about them!”—exuded their androgynous charm. They were so look-alike, sometimes it was difficult to distinguish them from each other. For the record, Prince Felix was also a famous part-time cross-dresser, performing anonymously in louche cabarets.
6 July 2020
Speaking shortly before Kaia Gerber cast off to lead the cast down his decking runway, house captain Ian Griffiths charted the course ahead: “I was imagining the Max Mara woman sitting at her desk in the—let’s face it—humdrum office and dreaming of running away to sea for adventure and even love. So it’s a romantic journey across the seascape that begins in Morocco and goes north to Russia.”The Moroccan connection explained Gerber’s djellaba-accented poncho, the stripes on those that passed later in the convoy, the rope belting that sinuously cinched a double-breasted hooded cashmere coat, and the neckline on the two velvet dresses near the end. Not entirely by chance, the Russian connection presaged the brand’s St. Petersburg–bound cruise collection on the horizon in May, but it was articulated less overtly here than the Moroccan: You could just about venture that the fringing detail on two mid-section duffles—a grey coat and black jacket—echoed the officer’s frogging on Griffiths’s mood board. Other nods to the nautical included a house flagship teddy coat presented in black-on-beigemarinierestriping, which also eddied through via knitwear.As Griffiths had already noted, the prevailing wind that propelled this voyage was romance, and this came articulated in the ruffles that barnacled organza or cashmere sleeves and hems, and that also whispered of the skull-and-crossbones piratical. This in turn led to Griffiths’s own home port, the New Romantic club scene of London’s 1980s, which was referenced in the Boy George braids in Sam McKnight’s hair work, Captain Sensible on the soundtrack, and the dropped leg-of-mutton shoulder that ran throughout the collection. Very sensible were the nylon-coated padded jackets that were stuffed not with down but off-cuts of Max Mara cashmere wadding. This was a collection of show coats to showboat, fit for the land-locked and sea-borne alike.
20 February 2020
Debbie Harry would’ve been Ian Griffiths’s dream date if he had been invited to a New York art gallery sometime in the ’70s—when the city was at its most gritty, though with a thriving art and club scene. “She was one of my idols,” said Max Mara’s creative director, who cast Harry as his pre-fall muse. The Blondie star’s recently published memoirs fueled Griffiths’s fascination with her transgressive take on femininity. “In her book, she talks about the difficulties of being a womanly woman in the rock world,” said the designer. What intrigued him was not only her striking looks, but her rule-breaking stance: “To be an artistic, assertive woman in girl drag, not boy drag, was then an act of transgression,” writes Harry in her book.Griffiths came up with a rather cinematic fictional narrative, in which the exhibition in question would be hosted at the gallery of Holly Solomon, the legendary American patron of the arts, whose private collection was recently on show at London’s Marlborough Contemporary. She was a vastly influential figure in the art world, launching and supporting the careers of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nam June Paik, and William Wegman, just to name a few. They would obviously all be present at the opening, mingling with the likes of Laurie Anderson and Mary Heilmann. Andy Warhol would make an appearance with his stylish posse in tow—Bianca Jagger, Trisha Brown, and Lydia Lunch—and Lee Krasner would also join in, though without her famous husband, Jackson Pollock. She was probably tired of her work being overshadowed by his, so for once he was left at home. (Krasner was recently the subject of a retrospective at London’s Barbican, a due tribute to her talent and to that of her fellow Abstract Expressionist women artists.)In keeping with this artsy inspiration, Griffiths softened the tailoring, played with fluid shapes, and drew attention to feminine details. “We reclaimed the ruffle as a symbol of something that can be sassy rather than romantic,” he said, pointing out a black pencil skirt with an asymmetrical frill at the front. It was worn under a camel coat and paired with a white cotton tee featuring a William Wegman picture in which one of his Weimaraners wears the Max Mara 101801 camel coat. The image was shot in 2001 to mark the label’s 50th anniversary, and has proved so successful that the T-shirt has become a collector’s item.
It was also the collection’s underpinning, worn under soft-tailored skirtsuits and sleeveless elongated blazers, or paired with ruffled and striped midi skirts and short-sleeved jackets in lightweight leather.Reclaimed ruffles were a theme in the collection; they were transformed into a tiered taffeta trench coat with balloon sleeves, and used as a trimming on the cuffs of tailored blazers and the lapels of short fitted jackets. More ruffles were proposed in a series of cocktail dresses in brightly hued taffeta, rather glamorous and dramatic in their asymmetrical, billowing proportions. A ruffled one-shouldered number in hot pink inspired by Warhol’s portrait of Holly Solomon had the designer raving about how fabulous Harry would’ve looked wearing it. “I can absolutely see her in it,” he said. About the inspiring role Harry played in the collection he concluded, “Now we take it for granted, but her brazen interpretation of femininity was totally pioneering.”
13 December 2019
It’s shaping up to be a big week forKilling Eve’s Jodie Comer. She’s in the running for Best Actress in a Drama at the Emmys this Sunday, and an army of her look-alikes stormed the runway at today’s Max Mara show. Creative director Ian Griffiths was backstage talking about Comer andKilling Eve’s creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge—he’s a big fan. Waller-Bridge, he made a point of saying, was brought in earlier this year to rehab the script for the next James Bond film, and she’s apparently said it “will treat women properly.” Many Bond films have failed to adequately do that in the past. Griffiths’s new Spring collection for Max Mara is a would-be wardrobe for a female-led spy thriller, with clothes, as he said, for everything from the “car chase to the ball scene.”To start, Candice Swanepoel, Gigi Hadid, and Doutzen Kroes emerged in variations on a theme: efficiently cut gray suiting with military utilitarian inflections. Doutzen’s tie matched her shirt. From there, Griffiths worked the same idea in total-look pastels, camel and khaki, or Prince of Wales checks, sometimes layering a softly structured dress with cascading volants on its narrow skirt underneath a more tailored blazer. The black-and-white polka-dot group was lively amid the monochrome repetitions. Coats are the thing at this label; but this being Spring, they were downplayed. A single double-breasted style was cut on the bias in icy blue cashmere, which gave it its generous proportions. Eveningwear is something newer for Max Mara. The show ended with a series of salopettes-style dresses, strappy across the back. You could picture a Bond girl slinking around a casino in one of them. Or possibly Jodie Comer at the Emmys. The Max Mara woman has fewer car chases than the average special agent, but she’s the protagonist in her own story; she wants to feel pulled together and looked at for the right reasons. Strip away the show’s movie-prop kepi hats, weirdly wrong knee socks, and extreme hair and makeup, and this collection would deliver for her.
19 September 2019
“I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men…for the image.” So said torch singer, actress, and model-for-the-night Ute Lemper, paraphrasing her great muse Marlene Dietrich, before a Berlin-presented Resort collection that blended elements of Dietrich’s style with that of David Bowie—all via an unlikely twist of primitivism—to zestily refresh the image of Max Mara.At first, the strands of inspiration that combined here seemed as disparate and unraveled as the tufted lines of fringing that trimmed pockets, hems, and legs in many of the tailored pieces. They all stemmed both from the venue city and the venue itself: Berlin’s Neues Museum. Its collection of Bronze Age and prehistoric artifacts informed the apparently brutal draping on skirts; the semicircle fringe fil coupé on trench coats and capes in mammoth brown or bloody red; the roughly textured, Lurex-shot cotton jacquard in some of the tailored pieces; the aforementioned tufting; and the mottled and beaten finish of the substantial bracelets and necklaces designed by Reema Pachachi. These touches provided a primitive bass line beneath the sophisticated duet played out above.Its performers were Dietrich, the actress and singer who pioneered an aggressively feminine interpretation of masculine tailoring, and Bowie, the singer and actor who pioneered an aggressively androgynous, shapeshifting evasion of gender norms in dress. The two did overlap once, in the über-camp, sometimes beautiful, and often ridiculous 1978 Weimar tragicomedyJust a Gigolo. Here, Ian Griffiths of Max Mara cast them together afresh via the medium of tailoring, combining Bowie-esque, narrowly curved saddle shoulders with Dietrich-esque tuxedos, cinched coats, and capes in white, roughened brown chalk stripe, and gray. To add an extra siren-song register of drama, some of the pieces came with embellishments on the shoulder made of floral arrangements of milky white sequin inspired by the German porcelain maker Meissen, whose archive Griffiths and his team visited while preparing this collection.Unpacked on the runway as thunder rumbled ominously outside, Griffiths’s portmanteau played out finely. Lemper, in the penultimate look, appeared as much the reincarnation of Dietrich as she ever has as she negotiated a fearsome staircase then strode through the raw-brick museum atrium in her Meissen-shouldered white suit.
In red especially, the sophisticatedly primitive fil coupé looked like a Bowie-ishly dramatic piece of performative stage regalia in capes, dresses, and suiting, but it was one that you could see impact-seeking Max Mara clients appreciatively incorporating into their wardrobes. All of Griffiths’s primitivist gestures were tangible, but delicately enough applied to avoid a Flintstones-ish flavoring and instead add an attractive roughness to this customarily sleekest of houses.And while the collection’s main weight rested on tailoring, multimaterial, paneled, and layered plissé skirts and saddle-shouldered epauletted blousons provided a casual and contemporary note that played to Berlin’s present. Preparing for this collection, Griffiths spent some time speaking with Lemper, who herself once spent three hours on the telephone with Dietrich. The strongest lesson from that conversation, said Griffiths, was that “Dietrich wasn’t frightened of anyone. And you tend to remember her as a dressed-up caricature of herself, but she was so much more than that.” Dressing for the image doesn’t necessarily tell the full story of the wearer—just the one she wants to be told. This collection provided ample material for Max Mara fans to spin Berlin-tinted yarns of their own devising.
3 June 2019
Everybody had something to say about the power coat Nancy Pelosi wore to last December’s meeting with Donald Trump regarding border wall funding—the one where the president threatened a government shutdown. EvenMoonlightdirector Barry Jenkins weighed in, calling its particular shade of red “deeply emphatic, yet serene.” In our photo-saturated moment, the coat telegraphed its message loud and clear: “Don’t mess with me.” Max Mara was the company behind it, and you can bet the brand capitalized on the situation. In the press, creative director Ian Griffiths said, “You develop an emotional relationship with a coat like nothing else in your wardrobe. I can imagine why Mrs. Pelosi chose to wear it for this important moment, and I’m deeply honored.” The label announced it would reissue the 2013 style in a range of colors for 2019.Mrs. Pelosi was front and center on Griffiths’s Fall mood board this morning. He was making a connection between power and glamour. Traditionally a feminine trait, glamour hasn’t always been linked with power, but with a record number of women in the House of Representatives, and multiple Democratic women presidential candidates gunning for the 2020 nomination, that’s changing. Griffiths naturally wants to keep Max Mara in the conversation, and on the backs of Mrs. Pelosi and other women like her. Hence the collection’s boss tailoring. Strong shoulders and full, pleated pants or skirts cut similarly were topped by matching coats, and the ensembles came in head-to-toe buff, camel, charcoal, or a tawny light brown. Extrapolating on the idea of working women, he added precisely cut utility pockets lifted from workwear to coats, vests, shift dresses, and a terrific poncho. The bags harnessed across the chest took the idea a step too far; they didn’t pass the Roxane Gay rule: “Dressing like a woman means wearing anything a woman deems appropriate and necessary for getting the job done.” There was no Pelosi red, but Griffiths did send out trios of models in bold colors. We could picture the House Speaker in the cerulean.
21 February 2019
Rudolf Nureyev seems to be rather in the air. A documentary celebrating his exceptional art and unique personal bond with the equally gifted prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn calledAll the World His Stagewas recently released. AndThe White Crow, a biopic focused on the Russian dancer’s impoverished childhood and 1961 escape from the Soviet Union, directed by Ralph Fiennes, is due in early 2019. In the fashion sphere, Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths used Nureyev, Fonteyn, and ballet in general as jumping-off points.“I was thinking about the relationship between Nureyev and Fonteyn,” Griffiths said. “It’s a dynamic rather applicable to Max Mara, because it was all about contrast: youth and experience, the anima and the animus, the masculine side of femininity, and the feminine side of masculinity.”Griffiths focused on the duo’s more intimate backstage and rehearsal moments, rather than referencing the grand costumes and the star wattage of staged performances. Hence his attention to leggings layered one over the other, rolled-sleeve cache-coeurs and débardeurs, and tees often knotted in front or on one side. While Nureyev’s style inspired a focus on soft masculine tailoring (accented by a velvet rendition of his signature trilby hat and a cashmere version of his utilitarian boots), Fonteyn’s provided the ethereal chiffons and georgettes.The collection’s relaxed sensibility was highlighted in the roomy round shapes of the classic cocoon coats, sometimes layered under breezy organza dusters in matching shades of powder pink, lilac, or copper. Softly tailored blazers worn with wide-leg trousers exuded an unstructured yet elegant ease, emphasized also by long skirts in fluid jersey or silk georgette, which looked as graceful as they were practical. Worn with layered flimsy cashmere tees, they conveyed a sense of fluidity and movement. They’re likely to dance their way out the stores faster than one can say “Nureyev.”
17 December 2018
“We see three generations wearing the same Max Mara coat—and it’s still not worn out,” said Ian Griffiths. “Max Mara is about timeless, high-quality clothes. You may not buy a coat every season, but when you do, you keep it and then pass it on.” In a world of wasteful fashion practices, Griffiths was talking about the principle of buy less, buy better before his show, arguing, “I think we’re better placed than some people on that.”He was alluding to an older form of consumption, dating back to when people had to save up to buy something they adored, and banks weren’t issuing cards to fuel credit booms. His show glanced back to the 1980s, retrieving images of the Milanese hands-on-hips power women designed for the brand by Anne-Marie Beretta. He added that his thinking also sprang from his deeper reading around the classical goddess Gaia (of ancient mythology) and from watching David Attenborough’sBlue Planet II. Back to the sustainability subject, then.All said and done, what matters are the results. Beige is having some sort of a revival (see Riccardo Tisci’s Burberry), and it’s Max Mara’s spiritual home. Thus, an offering of matching pantsuits and coats—padded shoulders, out there—or swathed and draped dresses à la Donna Karan. Karen Elson, Joan Smalls, and Saskia de Brauw inhabited that spirit alongside Kaia Gerber, Halima Aden, and Gigi Hadid—the intergenerational Max Mara feeling personified.Max Mara has been consistent on the modernization of casting practice in fashion. On the current fashion investment front, though? If it’s to be whittled down, it would be to the short Prince of Wales jackets hidden among the tailoring, some of the pantsuits, and the oversize coats and cabans.Paring away to choosing things with meaning is increasingly the way consumers are going. Awareness of the environmental and human costs of fashion production is beginning to bang on the doors of the fashion industry. All companies need to take that on board, and soon.
20 September 2018
So . . . whoisthis Max Mara guy, anyways? That’s a question even the most committed customers of this $1.65 billion-a-year (in 2016), 4,700-employee, family-held label might be forgiven for asking. The reason? Max Mara’s financial success is matched only by its fixation on discretion.Tonight, however, Italy’s quietest super-brand, its fashion-system sleeping giant, finally opened up. For the first time since it was founded almost 70 years ago, Max Mara held a show in its hometown of Reggio Emilia and took a moment to tell us something of its true story.That story began in 1951 with Achille Maramotti, who named his firm in honor of a hard-drinking local count named Max, and then attached Mara, snipped from his own surname, behind it. Reputedly Maramotti liked the alliteration, and wanted a name that would be easy to remember. As his machine-tooled womenswear designed for the burgeoning middle classes became more and more successful, Maramotti invested in modern art (and banks) and duly prospered.Tonight’s show was held in the first Max Mara factory and headquarters, a 1957-vintage modernist structure that in 2007 was turned over to house the fruits of all that art-collecting—the Collezione Maramotti. Before we saw the new clothes, however, we saw some of the old. On a tour of Max Mara’s 70,000-strong archive of vintage garments—50,000 from its own collections, and 20,000 other designer pieces—the invited influencers were encouraged to broadcast this treasure house of fashion history far and wide.Highlights included a Chanel coat worn by Coco herself at a department store opening in Texas, as well as a Saint Laurent coat in the Russian style once owned by Audrey Hepburn. Laid out before us were seemingly endless rails of incredible fragments of fashion history which the brand’s contemporary designers (it has a total of 23 brands and produces over 60 collections a year—16.5 million garments in all) are invited to use when researching their latest work.Achille Maramotti passed in 2005, and his company has since been stewarded by his children Luigi, Ignazio, and Ludovica. Once we were across Reggio in the 13-gallery Collezione space, Max Mara’s long-standing creative director Ian Griffiths explained that tonight’s collection was a long-planned homage to the founder, both via the clothes that his vision made possible and in their decoration, which drew reference after reference from the art collection his success allowed him to build.
4 June 2018
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the northern Italian city of Milan was Europe’s launchpad for the emerging power woman, who is somehow the topic of the season again, 30 years on. There were Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace, facing each other off with their diametrically opposed minimalist/maximalist styles. There was Gianfranco Ferré doing operatic grandeur and endless other brands patrolling the perimeters of that same shoulder-padded, cone-heeled precinct: Krizia, Byblos, Erreuno, Genny, and Complice are just a few of them. Their chief target was the emerging American female executive class, and of these, most have disappeared, save Armani and Versace—and then Max Mara, which forged through it all to become a mega industry of its own based on the classic camel coat and tailored business suit.So the mind’s eye focuses on what Max Mara is about, who it’s for, and what essential supporting, maybe not starring, role it needs to play. This sort of “purified” idea of Max Mara is not always what we see on its runway. This season the central idea was that this is a time for women to feel strong, and so, commendably, there were women who pass for today’s supermods of yesteryear. They included Lara Stone, Doutzen Kroes, Joan Smalls, and Halima Aden—and at the second-generation end, the daughters of ’80s supermodels, Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber. All of them had to carry some pretty fierce propositions: total looks in animal print, slick black leather, English tweed, checks, and blanket materials. There were overcoats, floor-sweeping kilts, and pencil skirts worn over narrow trousers or stirrup pants.It felt like acres of fabric and repetition to draw attention to a few simple points, or maybe just one: What’s happening with the Max Mara coat this winter? There are teddy bear coats, black leather trenches, military maxis, an animal-spot belted raincoat, and a duffel. The payoff: the camel coat of the season, which has a line of blanket fringing running down the back of each sleeve. It was a little Western-looking, but just conceptual enough to appeal to an adult. Too bad it can’t be seen in these pictures. After all that, it’s 22.It’s difficult; there’s a sense in which the modern would-be power woman doesn’t want too much fashion all the time. Still, after all these years, there is still a gaping hole in the women’s market for the kind of classy, simple, uniforms men take for granted. Max Mara has some of those solutions, for sure.
The more it pared back, the more that message would go across.
22 February 2018
For Pre-Fall, Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths has reworked the label’s best-selling 101801 coat. The original, which dates to 1981, is double-breasted with a generous-to-oversize fit and kimono sleeves. Decades later, you see it in the front rows at fashion shows. Griffiths’s reimagined versions include a cropped blouson, a belted redingote, and an A-line trapeze, all of them in superfine brushed cashmere wool and classic shades of navy, camel, and charcoal with nothing in the way of superfluous details. The fantasy scenario is having the financial wherewithal to order one of each.Griffiths’s ready-to-wear for Pre-Fall hews similarly understated. There’s a mannish suit, a selection of streamlined all-in-ones and apron dresses, and, for a touch of whimsy, silk ruffles on everything from an evening tee to a maxi skirt. The one nod to trends is the archival logo, dating to 1958 and used on the Spring ’18 runway. It appears on an intarsia crewneck, as well as on a lean wool skirt and full trousers, and it’s thankfully subtle. Logos have become all but obligatory in current fashion, but they’re unnecessary at Max Mara, a brand that has managed something that scarce others have achieved: making an identifiable icon, the 101801, out of something that’s not only logo-free, but a model of luxurious restraint.
12 December 2017
It’s becoming unmistakable: That turn-of-the-millennium feeling is back in fashion. Whether it’s Tom Ford doing Tom Ford in the high Gucci years in New York, young designers like Marta Jakubowski fan-designing in a Ford-y mood in London, or the gathering resurgence of logomania at Burberry and Alessandro Michele’s Gucci—the early aughts are the It years of the season. And now here’s Ian Griffiths, creative director at Max Mara: “Well, Helmut Lang is in the air,” he said, “that sense of urban edge. But we also wanted to soften it.”Truth to tell, the collection was more like Helmut Lang than Helmut Lang (the brand) itself. That would be a strong positive for members of the Max Mara audience who remember relying on the cool, minimalist pantsuits Lang was doing at the time he came to live and show in New York. His whittled-down uniform, comprised of parallel-cut trousers, a boyish tailored jacket, a cotton tank, a Crombie-style overcoat, and a slash of red lipstick provided a no-frills, go-to-work alternative to the ’80s power-shoulder ensemble. Look 5, featuring a camel coat, slim pants, and a cross-body bag, hit every point of Lang’s relevance now. The messenger-bag strap had a “new” logo (actually, the old one, which dates back to 1958), tracking the new trend. And the narrow camel coat? Well, that’s been the centrifugal generator of all Max Mara’s business since its beginnings.There aren’t many companies at the top echelon of fashion that clock the fact that the “Lang generation” is still economically active—plenty of them, 17 years on, are now at the top of their industries. These, the uncatered-to businesswomen/family providers of our times, would appreciate the linen-denim-with-deep-turn-ups section of this show. That’s pure Helmut Lang territory, too.As creative director of this brand, Griffiths is of an age to understand these things. In the second half of the collection, he duplicated the shapes in floral prints. He said he was thinking about one of the more positive improvements to New York’s inner-city environments in recent years—the wildflower movement, which has seen such developments as James Corner’s planting of New York’s High Line. Still, the architecture of the collection stayed the same throughout. With a brand like Max Mara, the simpler and more classic its focus, the better it gets.
21 September 2017
It’s the tail end of a two-month-long Resort season, and we’ve encountered a lot of muses at our showroom appointments—Princess Diana, Veruschka, Georgia O’Keeffe more than once.Max Mara’s Ian Griffiths landed on Eileen Gray. A female architect of the early 20th century, a time when there were few women in the field, Gray is remembered more for her accomplishments than a splashy sense of personal style; a Google search reveals she had a taste for men’s tailoring. Her subtle elegance suits Max Mara just fine. This is a label renowned for its classic double-face cashmere coats, not for specializing in the latest trends.Griffiths and co. imagined Gray vacationing on the French Riviera, where she built a seaside villa, named E-1027, in the late 1920s, ruffling feathers in the male-dominated architecture world in the process. “The poverty of modern architecture stems from the atrophy of sensuality,” she said. In retaliation, Le Corbusier apparently painted murals on the house. Naked! The Max Mara woman, in contrast to the petulant Le Corbusier, is always dignified. Though this collection takes its cues from the Côte d’Azur, with terrific marinière stripe knits of all gauges, it’s not a destination collection per se. The emphasis remains on double-face tailoring, and there’s no shortage of cashmere outerwear—remember, it ships November-ish. Also in the mix are some charming dresses, vaguely 1930s in spirit with gently nipped waists and midi lengths. A sleeveless white linen style tipped with navy is a timeless beauty.
28 June 2017
Anyone who questions fashion’s ability to be a sound medium for transmitting political statements on behalf of women should see how Halima Aden broke the Internet with her appearance at Max Mara this morning. The 19-year-old from Minnesota is the Somali-American who competed in her state’s selection round of the Miss USA competition, wearing a hijab and later donning a burkini for the swimwear round. Kanye West subsequently championed her, casting her in his Yeezy show. What a woman! Notably, it has taken political turmoil of an unprecedented nature—and the Trump administration—to vault the importance of inclusiveness on a cultural and religious level to the forefront of visibility in fashion. It must be stated clearly that it is the industry’s fault that it’s been too hidebound and lazy to open its field of vision to the human panorama. But now, after decades, a line has been crossed as far as a liberal-minded, global business is concerned. Enter a new heroine. Halima Aden: beautiful, fine-featured, and wearing a head scarf. Her presence on an Italian runway has as much power in Europe as it does in the U.S. and the Middle East.Max Mara knew what it was doing when it put her in the coat that enduringly represents the brand, the meta-camel item of all coating classics, belted and generous yet not too freakishly proportioned as to scare off customers. The rest of the collection was also focused on staying true to the women who rely on tailoring to get them through their days. Cutting through to the core of what grown-ups in corporate business and international politics need—the unconstricted trouser suits, the non-bothersome armor to clad during a 7:00 a.m.–to–9:00 p.m. day—makes sense at Max Mara. This is the female-side response to the sharp reversion to suits, ties, and overcoats that is happening in menswear now. Dresses and pretty, escapist things can be found aplenty everywhere else. Credit to Max Mara for recognizing where the new realities reside.
23 February 2017
How well do you ever really know a city? Even the most treasured small towns of childhood are not without their secrets. Shanghai is young, by Chinese standards, and its position—perpetually perched on the edge of reinvention; one of the largest cities in the world in a nation that’s jockeying for a likely role as the next great superpower—makes it occasionally unrecognizable, even to its intimates. There can be something menacing about all that growth, according to Liu Wei, a Beijing-based artist whose work tends to fixate on the relentless, sometimes terrifying march of human progress.Max Marahad enlisted him for both a special capsule collection and to create the set design for its Pre-Fall 2017 spectacular set in Shanghai’s Exhibition Center.Imagine if “all of the world’s great conurbations merged,” the show notes read, meaning, in the age of the Internet and unfettered access, a way of life that’s at once profoundly un- and hyper-real; one part London, one partThe Matrix(in reality, likely closer to Reddit). That not-quite place is “Monopolis,” say Max Mara and Liu Wei, and if you ask the label’s creative director, Ian Griffiths, even as you’ve put the conceit of an imaginary city aside, they were talking about some seriously new territory.Griffiths took cues from film noir heroines like Joan Crawford and Lauren Bacall (with some shades ofBlade Runnertossed in for good measure) for Pre-Fall, and with them, a certain smoky, sharp-eyed glamour made evident in 1940s shoulders and cinched waists, ruched tulle skirts and tailored trousers, chunky-heeled reptile-skin pumps and smooth leather knee-high lace-up boots. For a house known for its neat edges—and there were still plenty of those, put to their advantage in more riffs on the brand’s cult-favorite classic coats—embracing Liu Wei’s intentionally unfinished ends became something of a point of pride. This was especially true for Griffiths, who considers himself to be both a “Max Mara expert” and something of a disciple. (“If I tried to start my own line, under my own name, it would end up looking exactly like Max Mara,” Griffiths said early on in an interview.) This makes him essentially the custodian of the house’s legacy. “[Liu Wei and I] produced something that has given me, as a designer, a new direction that I can incorporate now as part of the Max Mara identity,” said Griffiths. “This sense of rawness that is, I think, completely modern . . .
this sense of imperfection that I think signifies the way people want to be today; they want to be glamorous and they want luxury, but they don’t want to be perfect or as if they were trying to be perfect.” (To those who find even trousers too try-hard, the collection also offered what the press notes called “glam new sweats.”)
15 December 2016
Was it the 2016 Rio Olympics that made the team atMax Marathink about designing a sporty, South American–influenced collection for next summer? Not directly. According to program notes, the link was actually the work of the great Italian-born architect Lina Bo Bardi, who set up her influential practice in Brazil in the middle of the last century. Cue the jungle prints, parrot calls, and a concrete pathway sprouting grass.Athleisure techno fabrics, blousons, hooded jackets, leggings, bodysuits, and stretch onesies were the core of the collection, a theme that was resolutely worked through in the jungle-moderne mood—even up to the point that grass appeared to start growing on skirts and exotic animal motifs took over sweaters.Will this be the only story to appear in Max Mara’s stores throughout next spring and summer? Surely not. There was a hint of a wider range in the one beige linen tailored skirtsuit on the runway. It would have been nice to see more of that sort of Milanese classic workwear, and even nicer if a few of the brand’s trenchcoats had been slipped in. After what Vetements has done to rocket beige raincoats to peak fashionability, a great opportunity has opened up for Max Mara to show that it owns the category. The runway rumble in the jungle didn’t let that happen, but surely in the stores the story will be different?
22 September 2016
TheMax Marateam chose Grace Jones as a role model for Resort. The show notes mention a video for “I’m Not Perfect,” a gem from the mid-’80s that’s worth a watch on YouTube, with cameos by Andy Warhol, Tina Chow, Timothy Leary, Nile Rodgers, and Keith Haring. The collection’s large and small graphic patterns look like a riff on the Haring-painted black-on-white skirt Jones wears in the clip; IRL, they’re most compelling in micro form on thin, filmy layering pieces like tie-neck long-sleeved tees and leggings. Jean-Paul Goude was another Jones collaborator, and his iconic photographs of the performer apparently inspired the zesty colors of double-face cashmere coats. A coral that reversed to camel was striking.As strong as Jones’s look was and is, the interpretation here was fairly subtle, and in that regard, a welcome development after the brand’s last runway show, where heavy-handed Bauhaus references weighed down or overshadowed the house signature sharp tailoring and outerwear. For Resort, Max Mara suiting spanned mannish pinstripes and a bright cherry red, made all the brighter by the matching silk blouse worn underneath the slim-cut jacket. We’d like to see Jones in that.
29 June 2016
By now, our eye for proportion is “in” for the season, and we know what we’re looking for. In the category of coats, it’s something long and slim, and where better to view that than atMax Mara, the Italian company that made its fortunes in outerwear? It turned out well: The label is on top of the importance of the right proportions, and attenuated, narrow overcoats in various gray menswear fabrics punctuated this collection. For once, it avoided being freighted with the anachronistic legacy of the ’70s maxi coat. Maybe that’s because the theme of the collection was 1920s Bauhaus and the women painters, textile designers, moviemakers, and collage artists who were at the center of Constructivism, Dadaism, and modernism in Germany, Russia, and Ukraine in the free-thinking, creative breathing space between the two world wars. There was a charcoal gray chalk-striped pantsuit in this show of which Marlene Dietrich would approve, if, indeed, that’s still a recommendation. In 2016, sightings of straightforwardly, exactingly well-made pantsuits for grown women are rare and gratefully received.It could be wished that Max Mara was more swaggeringly proud of this enormous strength it has. Though the Bauhaus-Dada-Berlin cabaret theme was well researched and pointed in a feminist direction in the show notes, it would have made the collection still more radical, relevant—and more feminist—if the consciously narrative themes were discontinued altogether. The problem is that the tail of the research can end up wagging the dog, so that—merely to be faithful to the research—an overcoat can be smothered in gold sequins; short playsuits can be made to mimic ’30s German gym class attire; and jumpsuits, half tailored, half sparkly, can advance as some kind of nod to the work overalls of the Bauhaus designers. Truth be told, retrofitting Max Mara’s plainly appealing, well-cut coats and tailoring in the service of a theme only obfuscates what a whole new generation is seeking out. There is a reason whyVetementsbecame so successful in the short space of a year: Its name means “clothes.” If there’s an example Max Mara might follow next season—and onward—it’s that: No trends, just more of the killer coats and modern suits.
25 February 2016
Over the past few months, the likes ofLady Gaga,Kim Kardashian West, andGigi Hadid, the last of whom opened the label’sFall ’15 show, have all discoveredMax Mara. Paparazzi shots of them in the Italian brand’s coats, meanwhile, have turned on a new generation of potential clients. Creative director Ian Griffiths said he had those future customers in mind when designing the Pre-Fall collection, which combined the house’s trademark coats, including a style he himself created for the label back in 1991, with pieces once associated with punks.It’s been a long time since you had to venture down to St. Marks Place and its environs for fishnet tights and studded leather accessories (Trash and Vaudeville, RIP), but they’re powerful enough as signifiers to still represent the place. They gave the collection an uptown/downtown tilt that could appeal to women who’ve never considered a cape or a clutch coat before. Come for the fishnets, you might say, but stay for the double-face cashmere. Max Mara will sell a gazillion of those net tees, and the tailoring was top-notch, especially on a pair of sleek silvery jacquard flares. But coats are and always will be the company’s raison d’être. Among the beauties in the new lineup, two in particular stood out: the 101801 swing coat style in tawny brown, and the same shape in a limited-edition black version covered in crystal embroidery.
15 December 2015
Nautical has been in style in summer at least sinceCoco Chanelset sail around the Mediterranean with her lover, the Duke of Westminster, in the ’20s—and even she can’t claim to have invented it, since earlier examples of sailor collars and boaters go back to Edwardian times. Why else would we automatically call a certain shade of dark blue “navy”? So for a purveyor of classics such asMax Mara, the theme is a natural and obvious one. And there’s nothing wrong with obvious! Faced with the oceans of mucked-about and difficult clothes that are proffered as fashion, how astonishingly nice would it be to know there was one store where perfectly cut sailor pants, striped Breton T-shirts and jerseys, peacoats, and the like are reliably available?Max Mara’s creative director,Ian Griffiths, should not fear that this could be a boring mission—the fact is that non-bonkers, non-branded classics can actually also be synonymous with cool. In his presentation, there were plenty of garments that might fall under the classification of great generics—the sort of clothes that could live with you for years. He threw in a couple of novelty notes—the star-pattern knits (no doubt inspired by officers’ epaulets) and prints of ropes on silk pieces—and he couldn’t hold back on some quirky styling, extending the sleeves of stripy tees and doing up jackets and coats on the wrong button, à la ’80sJohn Galliano. As a matter of fact, Griffiths really doesn’t need to try to dress up Max Mara’s classics in that sort of way at all. One day, he should see what happens if the company simply marches out 30 variations of a single garment—far from narrowing his audience, he might just convince the young as well as the middle-aged and senior among us. After all, the democracy of chic has no age limit.
24 September 2015
From the rough-and-tumble of East End boxing clubs to the oh-I-say of The City; from the springtime flowers in the Royal Parks to Cecil Beaton-shot rubble of the Blitz; from Noël Coward to Amy Winehouse: The tender references to London here were as wide-ranging as they were densely packed.In a Max Mara show? What's up with that? Well, for a start, thisisLondon. The new vogue for itinerant pre-collection shows, plus the opening of a fine new three-story Old Bond Street store, gave Team Max Mara the urge to import Resort here from its recent residency in New York. Furthermore, in creative director Ian Griffiths, the house has a designer who is a Londoner (Islington, specifically). The last time he showed his clothes at home was in 1987, his graduate collection from the Royal College of Art. Back on his patch 28 years later, Griffiths went for it.The opening section featured an interplay of pinstripe and chalk stripe on capes and coats worn over scoop-necked shirts, racerback vests, and trousers sliced at the hem to give great shoe. Boxing went the distance via mink head guards and mittens, piped and printed warm-up robes, mesh racerback vests, and leather boxing shorts whose broad, cummerbund-ish elasticated waists were elsewhere incorporated into fine slouchy pajama pants. Those shorts allowed for a dose of modern athleisurely layering against which to counterpoint Max Mara's traditionally excellent outerwear and tailoring. Particularly punchy coat-wise were the intarsia shearlings in old-boys-club stripes. The puritanism of pinstripe receded for pajama-loose silk trousers, high-waisted and slouchy, dusted with azalea and rose. Colorways suddenly popped from daffodil yellow to peony pink, then faded as fast again into an off-tone monochrome ending delineated by more stripes and gridded florals. On the backdrop screen, meanwhile, a city tour collage flitted from the Brutalism of the Barbican to Pugin's Palace of Westminster, as Coward and Winehouse played an unlikely but surprisingly harmonious duet on the PA. A coded ode to London extremes, this was also a valiant stab at casting Max Mara as a destination for adventurous edge as much as reliable discretion.
20 May 2015
What would Marilyn do? The Max Mara team landed on a perfect muse for Fall: Marilyn Monroe circa the pictures that photographer George Barris took of her on the beach in 1962. You know the ones: platinum waves swept to the side by the wind; dark swipes of cat-eye liner; nude under a towel that barely clings to her shoulders, or wrapped up in a chunky, hand-knit grandpa cardigan lying in the sand. Iconic and irresistible. A line-for-line copy of that sweater came down the runway; it looked as good now as it did then. But, as usual, it was the coats that were the main event here. Gigi Hadid came out first, gripping a camel coat closed over a matching slipdress, nude seamed stockings, and tassel loafers. The clutch coat was never the height of practicality even in its heyday 50-odd years ago, and in our always connected era, it's perhaps less so, but how much chicer is it to hold onto your double-face cashmere than to cling to your smartphone? Other coats came with proper closures, but a weatherproof trench lined with mink was alluring nonetheless. Elsewhere, an inside-out style with quilted lining fabric on its exterior looked like an elegant twist on winter's omnipresent puffers. Spinning out the mid-century theme, there were shrunken mohair sweaters and pencil skirts in menswear checks or needle-punched lace, and wiggly bustier- and slip-dresses worn with cozy knits that failed to sublimate the overall sexiness of the looks. Sounds like something Marilyn could've appreciated.
26 February 2015
Other European brands have scaled back their Pre-Fall efforts this year. Max Mara, on the other hand, ramped up, staging a show in Chelsea, 10 blocks north of the nearly finished Whitney Museum of American Art, the opening party of which the Italian company will sponsor in May. The fete is a plum prize in the sponsorship game and a natural one for Max Mara; founder Achille Maramotti's contemporary art collection opened to the public last year. The label's partnership with the museum includes a new "Whitney bag," designed by Max Mara and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Piano is the architect behind the new building). And it gave the design team something to latch on to for the ready-to-wear collection.The show notes cited Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and other stalwarts of the 1980s downtown art scene. Combat boots with croc toe caps and long, belted coats conjured the era. But nothing is ever too literal at Max Mara, so there were no shoulders-out-to-there or other obvious retro flourishes. Like most Max Mara collections, this was a showcase for the brand's smart tailoring and fine fabrics, both of which looked spectacular in scarlet red, with a few fun animal-print T-shirt dresses and sweaters thrown into the mix. The animal prints were an allusion to a 2008 Fritz Haeg show at the Whitney in which the artist asked us to consider the animals we share our urban habitats with. As usual, the outerwear was impressive. Lots of double-face cashmere, and a super-memorable Ultrasuede puffer coat with a giant fox collar.
8 January 2015
Anjelica Huston's memoirA Story Lately Toldis such a compulsive read, it's a surprise her name hasn't been coming up more lately. As a model in the '70s, Huston posed for a lot of the greats, Richard Avedon and David Bailey included, and she had a real sense of style. It was the glory days of American sportswear, and she was often snapped in a mannish jacket tossed casually over a shirtwaist dress, arm in arm with Jack Nicholson—effortless yet polished. Huston appeared in Max Mara's 1971 ad campaign, which gave the design team a good reason to return to the decade that is currently preoccupying much of Milan. The news was in the willowy silhouette, which paired covered-up, slightly blousy tops with mid-calf-length skirts, accessorized with stacked-heel knee-high boots and rain hats to match. Amid the busy black-and-white micro-floral and a too-bright naive watercolor print, the monochrome neutrals were the best fit for brand Max Mara. You couldn't go wrong with a neatly tailored camp shirt tucked into a suede wrap skirt in the same shade of icy gray. Double-breasted suit jackets had masculine proportions; they looked sharp juxtaposed not only with longish, lightweight skirts, but also with a pair of trim culottes. Bonus points for the casting. When Hollywood makes Huston's book into a movie, we know just who to play the starring role: Jamie Bochert, whose beauty is not unlike how Bailey once described Huston's: "dipped in darkness."
18 September 2014
Presenting Max Mara's new Resort collection, creative director Ian Griffiths talked about early 1980s New York, the moment "when the worlds of art, music, performance, and fashion collided." The Tom Tom Club played on the show's soundtrack; aside from that, the eighties mood came across mostly in the lineup's accessories: "dookie chains," Kangol-style hats whipped up in glossy snakeskin, and practical sneakers. Only, the commuters of thirty years ago didn't have Velcro-closure running shoes in the finest color-blocked leather.The clothes themselves were fairly sporty in nature but made from luxurious, ultra-comfortable fabrics. Double-face cashmere hoodie, anyone? Or how about a pair of crisp, well-cut trousers in the marled gray shade of your softest sweats? Still, the collection was aimed less at women's leisure time than it was at their office hours. Max Mara's power customer will find double-breasted pantsuits, a silk crepe shirtdress (she'll wear it sans the leggings it was shown with), and trenches here—all fashionable but not too forward. The biggest statement the Max Mara team made, save for all those accessories, was color. Mixed in with the gray and indigo tailoring, mostly shown in monochrome, was a bright pop of bubblegum pink and a warm wine red. Those will get you noticed in the concrete jungle.
27 May 2014
Scotland isn't a bad place to start when you're working on a Fall collection. The tweeds, those plaids, Prince of Wales checks. If anything, it's a bit obvious, so it's a credit to the design team that the Max Mara collection didn't feel that way this season. On the contrary, there was an inventive liveliness to the lineup, and it began with the outerwear. Hybrids were the show's big message: A peacoat coming was a puffer going. A cozy knit cardigan had quilted down below the knees. And a traditional man's coat was cut from four different kinds of wool—tweed and herringbone followed by two plaids shoulder to hem. It all could've been too clever for its own good from a classic brand like this, but the discreetly luxurious materials worked in its favor. We're less sure about the gold crocodile print and black PVC. Still, they did put the menswear fabrics that were the real story in sharp relief. Team Max Mara also believes in a vibrant shade of lichen green this season. That's not an easy color, although they made a striking case for it with an outfit that combined a trompe l'oeil blazer (the waistcoat was built in) with an elongated pullover and below-the-knee tube skirt. Coats are necessarily the focus at this show, but next Fall Max Mara will be a go-to resource for a great-looking oversize sweater and pencil skirt, too.
19 February 2014
Twentieth-century style icons like the model-turned-war photographer Lee Miller, the French actress Dominique Sanda, and the architect Eileen Gray sparked ideas about utilitarian dressing for Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths this season. Where the labels Spring show was provocative (see its many shades of double-face cashmere slipdress), this outing was no-nonsense in spirit. It came across in a cargo-pocket shirtdress; in the elongated, slightly boxy cut of a jacket and the full, cropped trousers of a pantsuit; and in the no-fuss ensemble of knit hoodie and A-line skirt. Of course, luxury is always part of the equation at this Italian house. As the collection went on, dark tones gave way to subtle pastels, and the fabrics became richer. A pair of shearling coats promised all of the warmth of a big fur but none of the flash. Elegance is refusal, as they say. Speaking of elegant, the dusty rose double-face cashmere cocoon coat shown over separates in deeper shades of pink was particularly lovely.
6 January 2014
As coat specialists, team Max Mara face a challenge at the Spring shows. Camel hair just isn't a warm-weather material, and double-face cashmere not so much either. So what's the message? As it turns out, they made a compelling case for the latter's seasonless-ness today, cutting it in cool shades of pearly gray and nude buff. The show opened with a slipdress in double-face cashmere and a matching coat in the stuff—a couture version of the twinset, the program notes called it. With faint gray hose and silvery sandals, the model was a vision in monochrome.Head-to-toe single color was the other big takeaway. It looked effortlessly chic on skirt suits and tailored coats over sheath dresses, as well as on more directional outfits like an oversize tee tucked into a long pencil skirt with suspenders. All of this felt true to the Max Mara label (save for the too-cute-for-their-own-good rompers). The fabric play was on brand, too. Beyond the double-face, the designers leaned on all-natural materials like linen, canvas, and a silk with the rough, raw texture of burlap, juxtaposed with others that had a more high-tech hand. Denim separates were treated to resemble a Robert Ryman canvas—call it art-gallery acid wash.Where the trouble arose was with the Crayola brights. The colors were searing, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but accessorized with not one, but two coordinating bags and matching hosiery and shoes, it was a case of visual overload. In the end, those were mostly styling miscues. What Max Mara does best is sophisticated understatement. And getting back to that, a hooded poncho in oatmeal double-face cashmere was pretty much faultless.
18 September 2013
With the long winter and cold spring Europe has had this year, it was somehow fitting to learn that the Max Mara team had chosen Sergei Diaghilev's masterpieceThe Rite of Springas a starting point for its new collection. More of a surprise was how unlike Nicholas Roerich's original costumes these clothes were. With the ballet celebrating its centennial, the pieces have been much in the news; and yes, there were some tunics layered over cropped pants here, and drop-waist silhouettes as well, but whereas Roerich's designs were heavily embroidered, the Max Mara collection was virtually decoration-free.The prevailing mood is a slouchy minimalism, not unlike at the label's Fall outing, but in a much brighter color palette. One of the most compelling combinations was an emerald-and-teal-blue pantsuit worn over a blush-pink blouse. Other looks paired coral with bubblegum pink, or pool blue with cerulean. Not designed for fading into the background, even though the overriding message of layered cashmere knits, as loose as pj's, and double-breasted blazers with built-in hoods was ease. As usual, there was a lot to like on the outerwear front: double-face cashmeres, of course, as well as sportier silk faille raincoats, the smartest in color-blocked icy gray and black.
29 May 2013
Max Mara's stock-in-trade is outerwear, and the design team didn't let you forget it this season. The coats and jackets were positively gigantic, and layered one on top of the other as enthusiastically as they were, they caused some of the models to look nearly as wide as they were tall. We're all for brands putting what they do best on the runway—and for a quality camel coat, you can't beat Max Mara—but the styling here was too molto at times for its own good. Take the example of a camel-hair overcoat shown over a hooded duffle in spun alpaca that looked like closely cropped shearling. Surely just one of those would protect a woman from even the most inclement weather. In any case, there was enough fashion in each of them to stand on their own.Once you saw past all the layers—if you could manage it—there were great pieces here. Working with the Bauhaus period as a reference point, the studio came up with bold rugby-stripe parkas and peacoats (navy and buff), as well as a stretchy knit dress and pencil skirt (ocher and brown). More often that not, though, the looks were monochrome, down to the suede running shoes and croc-stamped handbags. Slip into a midnight-blue slouchy cable-knit sweater and matching velvet track pants, and you'd be hard-pressed to slip them off. Other times, the loose-fitting elastic-waist pants in cashmere knit or techno satin felt too much like pajamas. As outerwear makers, tailoring is also in Max Mara's wheelhouse. A few well-cut trousers could've added the element of sharpness that this collection needed.
20 February 2013
With the Victoria & Albert's retrospective of David Bowie's career,David Bowie is,opening at the end of March, we're sure to see a few Ziggy Stardusts stalking the Fall runways next month. Count Max Mara as one of the labels who got there first. The thing is, Ziggy's one-armed, one-legged jumpsuits don't quite jibe with the classically oriented Italian house. At the label's pre-fall presentation today, head designer Ian Griffiths explained he looked at "the cool, elegant chic" of Bowie'sHunky Doryperiod. On the back of the 1971 album, Bowie wears a white button-down and cuffed flares that provided a template for the collection, which was focused on tailoring and came mostly in white, black, and light camel, with a shot of bright turquoise. Coats, of course, are the raison d'être at Max Mara, and they were the best things on offer here, especially the show-opening cashmere trench with leather detailing and a long black number with a built-in sheared fur bib.
7 January 2013
For Spring, the Max Mara design team went on safari. This is territory so well trod by fashion it's practically trampled. It nonetheless served the brand well. This was a successful collection that played to the company's heritage as a maker of fine outerwear. The silhouette was oversized, loose, and slightly slouched forward, so that the buttons on double-breasted coats sat lower on the torso than they normally would. Coupled with sleeves that were often rolled up to nearly the shoulders, it was an elongating look. If the sheer gazars and organzas the coats were cut in seem unlikely to make it onto the selling floor, at least without the addition of linings, Max Mara no doubt has more practical materials at its disposal.Complementing the outerwear were pencil skirts worn with graphic knit T-shirts or blouson tops in patchworks of plaid, florals, and animal print. There were also safari jackets-turned-dresses and take-your-pick all-in-ones cut flightsuit-tight or slouchy with gaucho-style pants. The palette was desert tones and sky blues. We didn't need to see each look in multiple color variations; by the end, the show felt repetitive. Still, there wasn't one piece that couldn't have believably marched off the runway and into the street.
19 September 2012
Rainer Werner Fassbinder'sQuerellegot a shout-out in MaxMara's program notes, and the cult film's theme song, "Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves," played on the soundtrack. Movie buffs were bemused. There's a major disconnect between the smart, urban style of this Italian brand and Fassbinder's stylized adaptation of Jean Genet's homorerotic novelQuerelle de Brest.And yet, this was a strong outing for MaxMara, focused on the power suiting and outerwear for which it's known. Exaggerated volumes have become a big story for Fall, and the design team experimented with them here, slinging crocodile belts low across the back of great coats to create a blouson effect above them. Peacoats, likewise, had soft, cocoonlike shapes.Querelle was a sailor, which explains the abundance of striped marinière tops and the military accoutrements that went with them. Swishy sailor pants in silk jersey and substantial jumpsuits in army green double-face cashmere landed on the plus side, but there's not much call for suspenders in a professional woman's life, nor for caps and ankle-to-knee leather spats. In the end, these were really just a styling trick, and they weren't bothersome enough to distract from the collection's great-looking coats.
22 February 2012
MaxMara's designers were name-dropping New York for pre-fall, an admission of sorts that, even for European brands, pre-fall has become an NYC-centric season, with cartloads of labels from Paris and Milan shipping in collections to keep American stores and press sated. The High Line in particular was a point of reference. As a green space amid an industrial block, you could see how the walkway would strike the right note for MaxMara, which balanced minimal lines with bright, spring-y colors like persimmon and poppy in largely monochromatic looks. There were wools and shearling among the offerings, but also one of the brand's famous coats shorn of its sleeves, a concession to the collection's May '12 arrival date.
9 January 2012
There was a time when MaxMara was a label with a wide reach. No one is about to say that "focus" is a dirty word, but everything is now so tightly iris-ed in on one set of proposals that you could be forgiven for thinking that the baby's been thrown out with the bathwater.Today's silhouette was athletic, punishingly lean, made even more so by the ribbed capris that were the collection's signal piece. Three was the magic number: three bands of color—tan, white, aqua—and three body zones—bodice, midriff, below the waist. Sometimes the bands were joined tone on tone for a sleek silhouette. Other times, they were split and reattached by Frankenstein stapling. It was a strange mash-up of high tech and mad science, and it wasn't necessarily improved by the addition of perforated suede and an old gold Lurex. The final piece—a sinuous, strapless Lurex jumpsuit topped by a rigid wrap of stapled leather—captured the peculiarly dual nature of the collection.
21 September 2011
Fashion's Jagger jag continues apace. Bianca J. inspired MaxMara's seventies-inflected Resort offering, right down to its stark white suit. (In fairness, Mick, too, liked that look; see his 1971 Saint-Tropez wedding duds for proof.) The printed caftans and long tunic dresses also had Bianca's seventies-sportif stamp. Classic American sportswear—mixed with a little sixties juice, inspired by Jean Seberg inBreathless—gave the collection its departure point. Flared trousers and silk blouses referenced the Me Decade, while color-blocking and leather accents brought the offerings to the present day.
18 May 2011
If MaxMara was claiming Britain's country life and all of its joys as inspiration for the collection it showed today, it was a vision radically distanced from its source material. This was tradition transformed by technology, every hint of rough rusticity smoothed away. The white wool duffel with the knit leggings that opened the show could have stepped off a space station. Almost everything that followed had the same sci-fi, slightly android quality, as if some fashion gene splicer from the future was trying to evoke the spirit of the past by injecting, for example, a kilt into a coat.The Highland references didn't stop there. The subtle shagginess of alpaca and mohair fabrications hinted, barely, at a wild frontier. Toward the show's end, the tartan paved with sequins was a concession to dressiness. The full-length coat-dress in a silvered plaid with a torrent of blanket fringing was one of the collection's more impressive pieces. But MaxMara's USP is smart urban style, and ultimately that was what was being communicated, whether by the kilt-belted camel jacket over leggings, by the parka and stirrup pants, or by the sharply belted coats in bonded leather. Anonymous, yes, but remarkably potent where it counts.
23 February 2011
Never mind its Italian heritage,MaxMaralooked to the U.S. for its pre-fall collection, channeling the still-reigning queen of seventies American sportswear, Lauren Hutton. That moment in fashion was defined by clean lines, and that's what MM delivered here, whether in a tunic-and-cigarette-pant look or a simple, cap-sleeved sheath. Women still come to the label to replenish their coat closets, and there were options enough to satisfy most appetites. And though the offerings tended toward the restrained, the opulent crept in via a fox scarf, which was worn over coats, draped over shoulders, and even peeked out of handbags.
5 January 2011
The wordminimalis cropping up more and more this season. For MaxMara, it started with something as lean and precise as the new-wave music with which Frederic Sanchez soundtracked the show, and it extended to a (rather too) coolly analytical parade of familiar body-con styles, with the emphasis on a monochrome palette to elongate the silhouette still further. Stretch shorts and tops all in yellow or orange or violet were immediately followed by palazzo pants in the same colors, which, voluminous though they were, were slashed to reveal the limbs below. A nude suede all-in-one and a white second-skin jumpsuit were the most extreme expressions of the collection's obsession with shape, but the way in which a cable-stitched sweater was yanked close to the body with a skinny orange belt also subtly broadcast that silhouette was everything for Spring.It seemed like an oddly ungenerous stance for a house that is famous for its all-styles-served-here essence. The emphasis on the body meant flesh was bared in a backless apron-front dress or a white sheath that reversed to barely there-ness. The bandeau paired with a khaki pencil skirt compounded the overview. Of course, a show lets a label be a little more absolutist than it is back in the showroom, and MaxMara fans may see clues to that in the nautical stripes and the summery trenchcoats that ran the gamut from white leather to polka dots.
24 September 2010
Manhattan, Harbour Island, Marrakech—the new MaxMara collection takes inspiration from wildly different locales. But whether it's a dove gray double-lapel pantsuit or a palm frond-print twisted-neckline sheath, the effect is the same: power executive with cash to spare who prefers timeless polish to one-season-and-done trends. That said, the Marrakech section, with its subtle tribal prints, slouchy drop-crotch pants, and caftanlike pullover dress, felt the most timely. It doesn't hurt, of course, that Morocco is hot all over again, in the women's Resort collections (Jean Paul Gaultier) and the men's Spring runway shows (Gaultier, again, and Stefano Pilati for YSL).
9 June 2010
It's winter, and people are talking about pragmatic sportswear for working women, which points toward a bumper opportunity for an established go-out outerwear brand like MaxMara. This season the label strove to capitalize on that heritage—established way back at the dawn of working womanhood—with a collection that focused on eighties swing-coated military silhouettes with a touch of the Dr. Zhivagos about them.Greatcoats, stand-up collars, rows of buttons on shoulders, and long skirts in navy, gray, khaki, and stone formed the core of the show. These uniformly passed muster with all the evident quality women expect from this house—save, perhaps, for the shearlings. In a season of hot competition on the sheepskin front, these seemed too featureless and bulky to be contenders. Where the presentation really stretched credibility was when the styling delved into wide trousers tucked into leather knee boots, gold cocktail dresses, and heavily embroidered eveningwear with a quasi-czarist theme. That much historicism only served to distract from the strengths of a company whose classic product doesn't need to dress up in fancy disguises to prove its market relevance.
26 February 2010
The military push has reached MaxMara for Spring. Elsewhere, it might be rugged, politically pointed, or bound for summer festivals, but here it's aimed at different territory: the domain of the grown-up city woman. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Olive and khaki and the detailing found on trenchcoats, camp shirts, cargo pants, and parkas have a fashion bandwidth that can stretch to the classic. At MaxMara, there's always a need to search for a sane device to ground the collection, and this one looked right.Something about the treatment—drapey satin coats over matching shirts and pants, suede trousers, pencil skirts—recalled the heyday of early-eighties working-woman style, a look that emanated from Italy and had a corresponding period of popularity in American sportswear. The retro feel wasn't all that overt, but it was detectable in the rounded dolman-raglan sleeve—the curved version of the outsize shoulder that, back in the day, came fully furnished with a giant set of pads.MaxMara is smart to have avoided that particular literalism. Any over-egging of theme or reference is unwise in this collection. For the most part, the design team kept to the straight and narrow with the pragmatic utilitarian daywear that is this company's strong suit—though they did give in to the temptation to do a luxury camouflage patchwork coat and a strapless military evening gown. Doubtful that those will ever really get worn, but the rest? Absolutely.
25 September 2009
At the tail end of Milan fashion week, it was refreshing to witness a collection that made no reference to the eighties. The more obvious trend-driven route is one the MaxMara team might've gone as recently as last season, but for now it looks as though they're making a concerted effort to return to the brand's roots. Subtle luxury being this label's original stock in trade, the emphasis today was on classics—coats, above all, in sumptuous fabrics like cashmere, alpaca, and camel's hair. (The company also introduced Atelier, a new limited-edition line of coats earlier in the week.)If you're shopping for a trench come fall, MaxMara could just be your go-to house. But there were other keepers as well, in particular a tobacco-brown coat in double-face cashmere with deeply cuffed short kimono sleeves. Attention was paid to the neckline of jackets: Slightly oversize boyfriend blazers in charcoal and beige distinguished themselves by their tucked-under lapels; other single- and double-breasted options wrapped around the neck almost like scarves.The show wasn't entirely free of styling tricks—silk slips peeking below the hems of otherwise office-ready dresses and Amelia Earhart-worthy fur bonnets being the two most notable offenders. But overall, this collection showed MaxMara playing to its strengths.
1 March 2009
In a season when no one can really be sure how she'll feel about spending money six months hence, it would make sense that a label with a tried-and-trusted signature like MaxMara would smell its advantage and turn out the most convincing argument on Earth for believable classics. Instead, what transpired on the runway only served to raise bewildering questions. Will real women want viscose overalls in silky fabrics next spring? Will they see themselves in shirtdress-cum-rompers? Does a go-to-work pantsuit benefit from the addition of souped-up carpenter trousers? And does any of that improve when you've seen it repeated in four different colorways and fabrics? Who, really, is going to go for dungarees in white sequins?A tremendous amount of goodwill exists toward MaxMara, and that should never be dismissed. The problem here is the frustration of seeing a great company miss its opportunity. It would almost have been preferable had a whole series of commercial suits and coats been trotted out—presumably that's what the MaxMara customer will really be buying come spring. What seemed to be going on—and there was plenty of time to diagnose it as yet another repeat garment passed by—was a misreading of what might actually pique the interest of the press. Fancied-up sportswear in however many swatch options just didn't do it this time.
24 September 2008
There's a cadre of girls who are getting into tailoring now—they're out there at the shows, working strong-shouldered blazers over dresses, and striding around looking good in sharp-line pants again. That's a trend swing sure to track upward for Fall, but after such a long phase in which designers have ditched structure for bubble shifts, who's left that can still cut it? MaxMara is one company that remains equipped to do the job properly, and its Fall collection smartly laid the jackets, tweeds, and impeccable coats on the line.According to the program notes—and the soundtrack—Roxy Music-era London glam was the inspiration. That gave a (thankfully mild) seventies-slash-forties excuse for a tweed coat with bristling fox-fur sleeves that opened the show, and the tweaked-up padded shoulder lines that followed from there. There were fine alpaca coats and sleeveless, slightly A-line jackets whose cuts followed in the slipstream of the ideas pioneered by Stefano Pilati and Roland Mouret last season. The reiteration of the shoulder kept coming in knitwear, including boleros done in oversize Aran-knit patterns with thick cable tubes circling the upper arm. After that, a slow drift into tinsel cardigans, sweaters, and unforgiving Lurex jersey dresses threatened to wipe out the classiness, but never mind. The moral: MaxMara looks best when it's not trying too hard, as demonstrated by the charcoal-gray pantsuit and chiffon tie-necked blouse with a coat jacket shrugged over the shoulders by the insouciant Lily Donaldson. That's the way to do it.
20 February 2008
MaxMara's designers read the memo about this season's trends—Japanese influences, deconstructed tailoring, jumpsuits, and pajama suits—then went off and did their own thing with them. What emerged took an early-eighties street-style turn: something from the moment when Comme des Garçons was new, Jean Paul Gaultier was emerging, and London's Buffalo Girls were dressing in an androgynous-rocker kind of way. It fits MaxMara's agenda to find a new raison d'être for a jacket, coat, and suit, of course—and this time the team worked it out by cutting jackets with volume in the back; making a gray pinstripe suit with a forties shoulder, nipped waist, and calf-length skirt; and paring back the neckline of a narrow belted trench. All this made sense, but the dippy-hemlined skirts à la Comme circa 1985 were a reference too clunky to look convincing.As for the jumpsuits, well, MaxMara can claim to have been vindicated on that one. The house has been doing them for a couple of seasons already, and now, as so many others are piling in with them, MaxMara has switched its overalls from military khakis into black satin. Fair enough, but after that transition into glammier fabrication the impetus petered out. After all, how does a boy-girl dress for evening? Would she wear an ice blue charmeuse pajama suit? It was a question that left the show dangling on a bit of an odd note—like the hemline that had mysteriously been left hanging over one ankle.
26 September 2007
The jumpsuit is a puzzling trend. It has the one-stop-shopping appeal of a dress, yes, but none of the ease. There's no simple way to get one on, and once you have, chances are you'll look like a paratrooper crossed with a car mechanic. In other words, approach with caution—a warning that went unheeded at MaxMara, where the boilersuits, coveralls, and ski suits came in all manner of styles: flannels and satins, long-sleeved and tank, full through the leg or tapered. Another strange recurrence were the show's dreadlock knits—thick dangling fringes edging the sleeves of jackets and sweaters, and in some cases multiplying across the back.Both concepts served only to distract from the great-looking coats that MaxMara is known for. This season the best were the ankle-grazing belted shearlings and the equally long parkas in camo green with safety-orange lining. There was no ignoring the army jackets, however, with their epaulets in electric bright blue and acid yellow; or the shocking-orange tartan pants (cut nice and slim) that were paired with a snug cropped bomber. Chic practicality has long been the essence of this brand, but, all in all there just wasn't enough of it here.
21 February 2007
MaxMara's designers continued in the youthful direction established last season with a collection that touched on many of the current trends. Playing off the brand¿s strength as a coat business, they showed numerous variations on that Milan phenomenon (even for spring): the sporty, chic anorak. Here, it came cropped at the waist with a bubble skirt; as a dress with drawstring detailing; even shrunken into a bolero. Jackets were cut on the boxy side, in neoprene or with a blouson back, and were worn with tulip skirts with tucked hems for an easy new take on the suit. As on other catwalks, there were subtle tribal motifs, including patterned beading on shoulder straps. And here, the season's essential sack dress came in painterly abstract-floral silks.The last part of the show could've used a sharper edit—how many ways can you drape, tuck, and wrap a metallic frock? Evening sarongs with oversize crystal straps managed to strike the right dressed-up-but-not-trying-too-hard note, but sweaters and pod-shaped skirts made from what looked like synthetic gorilla fur and a rubber floor mat were inexplicable—especially when the designers got so much else right.
27 September 2006
Gray, navy, men's suiting, coats, knits: These subjects of the season are MaxMara's material claim to fame, and for fall, the label's designers grabbed their advantage. Younger and faster-paced than usual, the collection set off at a clip with a bit of sharp styling: There were leggings and glossy pumps worn under short dresses, tailored jackets, and sequin-striped knits. Meanwhile, A-line duffels in gray melton and blanket checks, double-breasted maxi coats, and a few capes stood as a strong reminder of exactly why MaxMara is a go-to label for coats.Cutting a neat three-piece pantsuit is a natural for the house, too. They followed through by draping menswear fabrics into feminine shapes: Egg-shape skirts and a strapless wool dress jibed well with the direction of the season. The proportions—skinny legs and voluminous tops, slouchy pants and narrow bodies—touched on all the right trends as well, but why show so many versions? MaxMara doesn't need to prove it can deliver the same shapes in different fabrics and colors. Still, compared to recent form, the modernized message of this collection was a big improvement.
22 February 2006
There's a puzzling disconnect between MaxMara's stores—brightly lit havens of well thought-out, sanely presented wardrobe options—and what transpires at its runway shows. The dark and cavernous exhibition hall where this Milan fashion powerhouse persists in putting up its presentations is a bit of a mood dampener, first of all. And the show itself, teasing out its design conceits in many passages, tends to make audience concentration wilt beneath the repetitions.What MaxMara's design team decided on as seasonal innovations were big, striped sailor T-shirtdresses, a feeling for loose shapes, mannish styling, and a bit of eighties avant garde influence in the way of elasticized gatherings. What MaxMara does best for spring, though—that would be updates on burlap and linen safari-style pieces, camp shirts, summer trenches, and easy, wide pants with paper bag waists—was thankfully unchanged. Too bad, then, that those pieces had nothing to do with other distractions, like oversize jumpers styled like men's trousers, roomy playsuits, and primary-color silk hobble dresses. It's no slight to say that this highly regarded house could far better display its strengths in real, pragmatic dressing with a well-focused showroom presentation.
28 September 2005
There are some shows that make you question the meaning of, well, shows. MaxMara is a case in point. The company is one of the world's most consistently reliable sources of coats, synonymous with uncontroversial words like "classic" and "good taste." In a good way. And the program notes for the label's fall collection made reassuring mention of "sartorial rigour, quality and coherence."Then came the show itself. There were coats all right, but submerged in "fashion styling" so egregious—hooded bodysuits, bubble skirts, white tights, and (help!) white leather fringe—as to leave the audience in a state of disbelief.Ironically, a brisk march through the smart belted overcoats and Prince of Wales check pantsuits would have been a far bolder departure, and a sign of a brand that thinks in a modern way. The looser shape of the coats, the volume of shearling blousons, and sharp details like patent linings in the back of jacket collars could have made a condensed statement in a quarter of the time. But instead, the potential for "rigor and coherence" was dissolved in a perplexing rehash of parts of the eighties no grown woman wishes to relive. A nod toward "volume" with a single egg-shape skirt? Fine. But to commit to that as a "theme," done in dogtooth patterns, up to and including ballooning taffeta and an occasional explosion of flamenco ruffles? Incredible. In a bad way.MaxMara is far from the only Italian manufacturer to fall into this old-think "designer collection" way of dressing up a core product as glamorous news. The trouble is that runway showiness is predicated on a template that was set in the eighties—and which now looks as out of date as those fringed ankle boots.
23 February 2005
Under normal circumstances, MaxMara is a dependable collection in which women seek those most useful, yet maddeningly hard-to-find elements: a jacket or coat with classic dash or—rarest of rare resources—a fantastically cut pair of pants. For Spring, the house design team started off in a promising, safari-inspired direction. Dashing taupe trenches, and heavy-linen bush jackets with a nice drape to them, will go down excellently with that chic, grown-up audience whose routeOut of Africaleads via Saint Laurent.There was a fresh seasonal appeal, too, in the nice contrast between gutsy leaf prints and pretty eyelet elements. But what horror transpired in the MaxMara pant department? Everyone knows the label's trousers are a strength at retail. But, at the very moment when an amazingly tailored man's pant is nearing the top of every woman's most-desired list, the house decided to go with… diapers. Quite what could have possessed the designers to commit to this shape, in everything from skirts with an under-loop of fabric to droopy jersey jumpsuits to evening gowns with a floor-dragging crotch, is beyond inexplicable.Oh, well. At an early-morning show, the bizarre parade did at least raise a rare communal round of international laughter in the auditorium.
29 September 2004
Who thinks about the working woman these days? That¿s a down-to-earth question that doesn¿t appear to blip across many designers¿ radar screens in the twenty-first century, at least not when they¿re lining up runway parades for the press. MaxMara, on the other hand, is one of the few solid supporters of the belief that a woman in winter may (at the least) need a good coat in order to get through the humdrum A to B. This season, as it happens, a savvy style choice could well be an updated camel-hair classic. MaxMara has been in that business since the fifties, and this season's show revolved around its iconic belted coat, along with other aspects of town-and-country outerwear. There were small Norfolk jackets and shearling aviators that seemed nicely on-trend yet not limited to the category of one-season-only fashion statements.The problem comes in fleshing out that pragmatic core as a fully realized collection. Yes, big flaring skirts are part of the current scene but they don¿t necessarily do much for the hips in blanket-weight fabrics. Ditto cable knits and Swarovski crystal when married into the same sweater. MaxMara can also stretch its credibility by feeling the need to show eveningwear. This season, the design team picked out the crystal-encrusted jersey keyhole disco gowns of the late seventies designer Loris Azzaro as a trendy reference du jour. Fine, but it¿s still those elegant coats that will keep the MaxMara woman coming back for more.
24 February 2004
One of Italy’s oldest ready-to-wear companies, MaxMara made its name in the fifties, mainly as a purveyor of quality coats, and is still motoring on that business today, selling stylish outerwear and tailoring to women all over the world. The challenge faced by the label each season is how to spin a trend around its solid brand franchise, and build it into something that makes a sustained statement as a runway collection.The core idea for spring was easy enough to spot: soft, washed materials like canvas and leather, made into slouchy-pocketed jackets, trenches, and short, puffy bombers; plus a handful of masculine vests, some floaty, Stevie Nicks–type dresses (a few done in Zandra Rhodes–like prints), and a palette of muted, sanded-down, tea-stained colors. The collection included some of the fine-gauge cropped knits that are emerging as a seasonal essential, and touched on the current feeling for stripes and for lightened-up masculine dressing, featured in a pale blue-and-white seersucker three-piece suit with cropped pants. It was less successful in catching on to another key virtue of modern fashion: the art of the edit. Brevity is the soul of any strong statement, and this one was weakened by too much repetition.
1 October 2003
If you’re going to invest in a major coat, why should it be boring? That was the question that MaxMara, the Italian powerhouse that founded its fortune on making outerwear for generations of women, answered for fall. The collection offered lots of tempting topcoat propositions, featuring modern cuts that looked current without trying too hard to be trendy.MaxMara’s strategies for a new but wearable fall look were in step with ideas instigated in New York at Narciso Rodriguez and Proenza Schouler: either base everything on skinny leggings worn mid-heel with slingbacks, or pull on the season’s crucial over-the-knee boots. Shapes that go over that slim line can then assume new volumes and textures without overwhelming the body.The newest concept on display was a caped jacket or coat, sometimes done in leather, chicly fused with a speckled tweed lining. In a canny nod toward menswear-for-women (another key notion emerging for fall), the classic double-breasted coat was eased up and oversized, while more sporty looks came courtesy of cashmere bombers with ribbed welts, leather gilets and big, orange down-filled parkas. Low-slung, egg-shaped hipster skirts and a hugely oversize gray knit sweater worn as a dress, meanwhile, offered around-town options that—just for a change—made absolutely no reference to the ’60s. And for that, working women of the world give thanks.
28 February 2003
What does a label known worldwide for beautiful winter coats do when the weather turns warmer? Hope for rain, of course. MaxMara based its spring collection on raincoats, making them part of a sexy-chic wardrobe that can take its following of working women through good and bad weather alike.The show opened with a short, belted olive patent version, worn with gladiator sandals buckled around the shins. The slick mac also turned up in firefighter yellow, then became the basis of a skirt suit, in both beige and bright orange. Life isn’t all 9 to 5, though. MaxMara’s designers applied themselves to beach- and eveningwear as well. There were breezy linen-voile shirt dresses—ruched in back to give a sense of feminine form—shown over swimwear.When it came to nightfall, the collection picked up on the ’60s trend that is bubbling all over Milan. Short, drapey jersey dresses came anchored to the body with silver-metal neck pieces straight out of the Courrèges space-age period. If a more down-to-earth dinner date is on the agenda, there was an oyster satin suit that walked the line between sensible propriety and on-trend glamour.
27 September 2002
The camel-hair coat is an icon for MaxMara; the foundation upon which one of Italy's most successful family fashion empire was built. The exercise each fall is to find new context in which to frame that timeless piece. This season's version is a creamy, floorsweeping topper flying loose over tight, high-waisted velvet pants and a turtleneck.MaxMara acts as a percolator for current trends, making them accessible to a city woman who spends her money on wearable investments but likes to nod to fashion. For fall, she'll find that in an Alaïa-influenced flounced skirt with a matching bomber jacket, a 70s pants suit with a neat blazer, an ethnic fur-lined gilet, or the quintessential retro brown stacked-heel knee boot. Last fall's Art Nouveau mood reappears as Klimt-influenced prints, and peacock feathers made into capelets, jackets or as decoration on dresses and blouses. That's just enough to show a general awareness of the direction of fashion but not overpower the house's classic values, which are rooted as much in the pleasure of cashmere, velvet and suede as in the practicalities of a busy woman's everyday life.
1 March 2002
Khaki, burgundy, lavender, and navy blue were the predominating colors at MaxMara. It was a simple, controlled collection that worked—thanks to the precision of the form-fitting pantsuits, sexy shorts, and luxurious denim ensembles. Studded overcoats, pleated skirts and transparent shirts were both practical and sharp; graphic sweaters with geometric motifs, and a series of shiny pink snakeskin pieces added a dash of excitement to the runway. The chemisiers, smoky glasses, skinny belts, and fitted blazers confirmed that 70s glamour is here to stay—at least for a while.
27 September 1999