Max Azria (Q3344)
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Max Azria is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Max Azria |
Max Azria is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
1989
Fashion Designer
Jeffrey Deitch's recentArt in the Streetsshow at the MOCA in L.A. sparked Max and Lubov Azria's Resort collection for Max Azria. The design duo styled each look with a beanie hat and sneakers and effectively balanced this city-inspired undercurrent with a feminine ease. The downtown theme was loud and clear on a digital print of a cement wall that showed up on several silk separates. Sporty drawstrings came on tunics, trousers, and dresses alike, and there were plenty of parkas to go around. But the utilitarian lineup had its sexier moments. A marigold T-shirt dress had a to-the-hip slit, while a chunky knit sweater was cut to casually slip off one shoulder.
5 June 2011
As of late, Max and Lubov Azria have been making very precise, clean statements with all of their lines. Today they stayed true to recent form with a collection that took classic menswear codes and refined them into sleek womenswear silhouettes.Tailoring was a big part of the story, and as on other runways this week, there were some terrific coats. These varied from the neat little belted herringbone number that opened the show to a hooded wool cape with a leather buckle to a sharp-shouldered glossy "mud fur" coat in inky black and an oversize utility coat with lush cordovan leather trim.Tactile pieces like lizard-embossed leather and faux-fur skirts and a few chunky knits stood out. And it was a welcome moment when the Azrias turned up the sex appeal with a slightly edgy black grouping punctuated by a pair of bright pleated shift dresses. After all, the reality is that women cannot live by menswear alone.
12 February 2011
The ghost of Grace Kelly hovered over Max and Lubov Azria's pre-fall outing forMax Azria. Audrey Hepburn, too. The look they were after was "timeless elegance" of the lounging variety. In an interim season that finds designers showing bikinis alongside parkas, this collection seemed squarely aimed at early summer, when the clothes will hit stores. Riffing on the loose silhouettes they played with for Spring, the Azrias nipped and tucked the long lines of their earlier effort for a boxier, more separates-heavy range. (Several skirts and dresses, however, still did sweep the floor.) Wide, cropped pants and wrap dresses may not set the hearts of edgier dressers aflutter, but the Azrias' core demographic should find plenty to like in this languid collection.
7 December 2010
Should we be getting used to Max the minimalist? Perhaps. Mr. Azria and his wife, Lubov, seem to have found a real affinity for simplicity. Earlier this week, their BCBG Max Azria collection was a parade of clean-lined, neutral looks. Last Fall's Max Azria collection was relatively free of frippery, and it was followed up today with a series of fluid but austere looks in hushed and dreamy pales like blush, mint, dove gray, and Champagne.The focus here was on a dress that hovers just below the knee or farther and channels a dancer's athleticism and grace. The Azrias aimed to hold your interest with the geometry of sliced cutouts, thin crisscrossing straps, and linear piping experiments. The strategy proved successful. Still, the points of departure, like a couple of great slouchy silk crepe suits, were welcome. The twin ghosts of Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein collections past rattled around the edges. That's not a criticism. You could have worse references. It will be interesting to see where this new direction takes the Azrias.
11 September 2010
Peter Beard's images of Africa inspired Max and Lubov Azria's travel-themed Resort collection. It's a reference that can easily feel clichéd, but to the designers' credit, their interpretation was fresh. Colorful batik-printed caftans and billowy silk dresses in a rainbow of greens—chartreuse, lime, asparagus—popped against neutral separates, including great slouchy khaki shorts and lightweight cotton utility-style jackets. To complete the luxe global-nomad look: a series of white cotton shirts and tank dresses featuring tie fronts and draped skirts.
6 June 2010
The only thing wrong with Lubov and Max Azria doing luxe minimalism for their Max Azria show is that a reviewer must resist the urge to indulge in some sort of Max-goes-minimal wordplay. Must resist. Other than that, today's show was a beauty, which built on and really refined the clean direction the Azrias started heading in last Spring.This brand of minimalism was serene and spare, with nothing that was overly stark or challengingly architectural. The tonal looks, either in creamy neutrals or blacks and charcoals, followed in the hybridized fabric vein that seems to be everyone's cup of tea these days. Leathers mixed it up with wools, and there was a peekaboo play in paneled crepe dresses inset with mesh. For a collection that skewed conservative, the latter added a necessary little frisson. Still, the clean and covered-up restraint of a beautiful oatmeal bouclé coat or a chic boxy taupe leather tee and trousers is something we can certainly get behind. Evening too was a subdued affair, mostly. Amid the lovely unembellished and billowing draped jersey frocks were a series of black ribbed-knit dresses with wide panels of bugle beading that strangely echoed the Azrias' other high-end label, Hervé Léger. Those pieces will be an easier sell to this duo's starlet contingent.
15 February 2010
Touted as an "ode to postmodernity," this subtle Max Azria collection provided a stark counterpoint to the exhibitionistic sexuality of Max and Lubov Azria's Hervé Léger show. Here, the interest was in what lies beneath.Minimalism from the Azrias? Believe it. Rather than binding the body, fabric fell around it, exposing bits of skin only in peekaboo fashion. Azria slashed dresses like Lucio Fontana piercing a canvas; metallic cages glimmered under semisheer knits. Some really smart tailored pieces—among them a mushroom-hued suit—added a balancing sense of soft structure. The best looks were the sparsest. The fussy beading that appeared with increasing frequency toward the finale distracted from the well-focused sense of purity…but that didn't seem to trouble Mickey Rourke (no angel), seated front-row and surrounded by a bevy of beauties.
14 September 2009
After an evening-heavy Fall outing, Lubov Azria said that she wanted to go "back to day" for a Resort collection that took as its mascot that cool English girl. You know the type—good legs, good fun, a bit bohemian, and not afraid to pair a party dress with her favorite pair of boots. The resulting silhouettes veered between extremes: loose and tight, short and long. Amid all that variety, it was the tailoring that stood out—especially in the case of a lapelled jumpsuit and chiffon-over-jersey jackets that had the right combination of structure and ease.
15 June 2009
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…that's the saying Max Azria's collection evoked.Something old:Rather than mess with a winning formula, Max and Lubov Azria revisited draping, this time effectively layering goddess dresses—some in velvet, others in jersey—over body stockings and leggings to give them a harder, more futuristic Lara Croft edge. One of the prettiest was a plum chiffon gown with an asymmetrical hem and attached scarf that flowed like water.Something new:Fresher was the Victorian tinge. "We fell in love with a piece of lace," Lubov said, by way of explanation. The material added texture and a snowy delicateness to the collection.Something borrowed:The more structured looks that opened the show (carapacelike corsets and toppers with inverted-triangle silhouettes) could have been seen at the Azrias' Hervé Léger show earlier this week.Something blue:The brand attracts some big names, as Alicia Keys (in the audience tonight) and Angelina Jolie could attest. The image of Angelina at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in a sea blue Max Azria dress from Spring still resonates. It was quite an endorsement.The unifying goal for Fall, according to Lubov, was to make women feel strong and confident—and, as the program notes put it, to "explore the ethereal seduction of the dark side." That's a tall order, and one that the Azrias only partly fulfilled. Still, there were points of light.
16 February 2009
Simply put: Max went minimal for Spring. With ideas of purity and paring down, designing couple Max and Lubov Azria sent out a parade of jersey girls in an almost exclusively pale and neutral color palette. For the label, it was a welcome breath of fresh air, particularly when you consider its somewhat complicated and corseted Fall. The look this time around was mostly very fluid, with lots of draping, twisting, and casually exposed shoulders and backs. There was also a clean athleticism to it, with tops and dresses layered over bandeaux, bodysuits, and stretchy ribbed belts. Evening—an important category for a label that often dresses its front-row denizens (today that meant Barbara Bush, Tinsley Mortimer, and Maggie Betts)—was similarly clean in unembellished georgette, cut to dramatically flap and flutter. It took a minute to realize that one of the songs on the show's playlist was the Black Ghosts' "The Repetition Kills You." It wasn't quite murder, but it did get a little monotonous. At least the Azrias were in on the joke (we think).
8 September 2008
The particular needs of a recently married MaxAzria design staffer inspired Max and Lubov Azria for Resort: to be precise, a lengthy honeymoon to a remote island that required an ultralight 20-pound suitcase. The Azrias translated that into easy, featherweight silk or gauzy microfiber dresses, many made multipurpose to be worn back-to-front or even as a skirt. Amid the putty gray neutrals and bright solids was a reflected water print—the best way to blend in on a nearly deserted isle.
2 June 2008
"It's a bit stronger, a bit sexier," said Lubov Azria backstage before the show, holding up as evidence a trapunto-stitched bra, to be worn Madonna-style over your clothes. Fall, explained Mrs. Azria, was essentially an evolution of Spring's boudoir-inspired show. But the underwear-as-outerwear did make you wonder whether the Azrias' clothes were actually evolving from boudoir to bawdy. That wasn't quite the case on the runway, however: Despite the presence of external underthings and glimpses of under-underthings, any brazen sexuality was muffled by the heavy fabrics and muted hues of Fall in a crowded show that could have used a little more focus. Instead, it was sex as accessory—a corset to cinch a sweater dress with a saucy bit of taffeta peeking out, or a garter just barely visible through a silk gauze trench. With an abundance of skirts, dresses, and an overall emphasis on the waist, there was a lot of lady present here, but the most interesting looks juxtaposed her with a practical, tomboy touch—a color-blocked T-shirt fastened with a stitched brassiere, tucked into soft cashmere pants that might do double duty as pajamas. Perhaps the next evolution come Spring?
3 February 2008
Reading Lubov and Max Azria's program notes before their candlelit show could have been perilous for any editor or retailer experiencing early-onset collections fatigue: The talk of "dreamy silhouettes" and "intimate luxury," in such a darkened setting, could easily make a girl long for her bed.Of course, no one would really begrudge the Azrias their boudoir theme. And aside from a few too-pajama-like pajama-party looks, it translated to a pretty parade of dresses in a lingerie-department palette of black, white, and nude. Delicate details like spaghetti straps and pintucking were derived from under-things; chunky, black platform sandals provided welcome grounding. The color-blocked and dip-dyed silks, however, felt like a dream we've had before.Judging by the long stretch of fashion-loving socialites in the front row—Ivanka Trump (with her newspaper-publisher beau, Jared Kushner), Celerie Kemble, Zani Gugelmann, Coralie Charriol, Arden Wohl, and Fabiola Beracasa—the designing couple is energetically buffing MaxAzria's status as the luxurious jewel in their BCBG crown. But while Trump and co. must have certainly found a dress or two to borrow or buy, this emerald isn't quite polished to perfection yet.
6 September 2007
Working in a palette of mostly muted colors with a splash of coral red, MaxAzria showed a collection of easy seaside looks for resort, like fit-and-flare trenches, draped jersey smocks, and wide-leg sailor pants. Standouts included a little trapeze frock in a blown-up, abstract plaid and a cozy cable sweater dress that twisted softly around the body.
1 July 2007
¿Big girl, you are beautiful!¿ sang the Brit pop flavor of the moment Mika on the boppy tune that opened the show—as if to hammer home the point that the three-season-old MaxAzria line is more grown-up than its sibling, BCBG Max Azria.What followed was heavy on pleating—here as elsewhere this week, sometimes seeming to do little but create bulk. Still, the pleats were well applied in a few cases, as in a pretty, belted black-and-green chiffon dress worn by Julia Dunstall. Roomy knit coats and cashmere sweater dresses were cozy and autumnal, while a muskrat tank-shaped vest looked quite sophisticated.Max and Lubov Azria have a faithful following, and their show attracted a brace of social girls to the front row: Camilla Belle, Tinsley Mortimer, Leigh Lezark, Byrdie Bell, and Olivia Palermo among them. These are young women with lots of photo opportunities. What will they be wearing to next fall¿s movie premieres? Maybe a black sequined lace coat over a navy halter dress with beading detail. And for dinner with an up-and-coming Mexican director? A metallic jacquard shift with cream satin pleated sleeves would fill that role quite nicely.
4 February 2007
Max Azria Collection, the niche line in the billion-dollar BCBG empire, is meant to be a place where the company's creative forces can "let their artistic voices be heard." But it's not yet entirely clear what they're trying to say. The clothes often rely on origami-style construction, which lends them a vaguely Japanese feeling. Concept and wearability were well balanced in pieces like an ivory linen organdy dress with a ruffled V-back, and a blue faille number with a slight asymmetry, but it's difficult to imagine the young and pretty luminaries in the front row—Paris and Nicky Hilton, Eva Mendes, Sarah Michelle Gellar—going in for the "undone" aesthetic, however cleverly it's configured.
10 September 2006