Max Mara Atelier (Q3349)
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Max Mara Atelier is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Max Mara Atelier |
Max Mara Atelier is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Fifteen Max Mara Atelier coats were presented in Venice at the modernist Olivetti store, a spare, elegant space overlooking St. Mark’s Square, designed in 1958 by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa. It was a fitting frame for the high-end offer, which showcased Max Mara’s industrial savoir faire augmented by artisanal handmade finishes.The design team looked at the company’s archive, where the first image published in a magazine in 1953 was of a red coat—not the shade of camel that has become the label’s signature. Here, a discreet red detail was introduced as a sort of decorative thread—a stitching along the lining, a subtle motif inside a pocket, or the “M” monogram embroidered beneath a collar.Each coat was designed to appeal to a variety of personal styles and body shapes, and they were all given a French name, to highlight a certaindégagéattitude of elegant nonchalance. Le Trench d’Hiver was a sartorial trench coat made in rich, soft nappa leather; a redingote in silk cady, L’Evasé, was gracefully form-fitting; another called Le Monsieur was inspired by the masculine style of the 1950s. The cocoon, the parka, the cardigan, and the overshirt were also offered in new versions, impeccably cut in lightweight double cashmere, alpaca, reversible shearling, or camel. The collection’s pièce de résistance was a round-shaped opera coat, crafted in dark green jacquard brocade, with golden threads giving off a subtle luminosity—an investment piece with handsome timeless appeal.
21 June 2024
The concept of ‘Absolute Coat’ was at the core of this Max Mara Atelier collection, comprised of fifteen pieces representing a sort of archetypal range of the coat template, rendered in the high standards of quality the company is known for. The trench, the Crombie, the masculine double breasted coat, the peacoat, the shawl collar, the oversize cocoon, the redingote: this was a veritable journey around an item which is the foundation of every wardrobe. The coats were gently updated with an appreciation for modernity without detracting from classic style.Every coat of the top-of-range collection, which will be sold only in Max Mara flagships, was finished by hand, and cut in the most precious and warm materials, like double cashmere, alpaca, and camel hair. Leathers were soft as the nappa used in glove-making; even shearlings were luscious to the touch. Shapes were kept almost quintessential, elevated to novelty via a modern sense of design.The Crombie was sharp-cut and rendered in bonded techno wool; the cape was made in shearling, wide-collared and batwing-sleeved. The trench had an assertive allure in black leather, while the A-line double cashmere coat was belted just at the front, softening its shape.The offer was edited and precise; it highlighted Max Mara’s ethos of luxurious authenticity. It’s a considered, thought-out approach, which values tradition yet is firmly rooted in the present.
26 February 2023
Few companies are able to keep consistency and balance between impeccable standards and the velocity required by industrial production as well as Max Mara. The range of its collections is also testament to its creative agility. At the top of the brand’s offer sits Max Mara Atelier, an edit of just 12 coats, which epitomizes the company’s approach to understated luxury.Collezione Maramotti is the label’s link with the art world, and discreetly referencing the oeuvre of famous artists is always part of Atelier’s inspiration. This season the collection was called Sculpting Time, drawing on the visions of sculptor Alberto Giacometti and photographer Peter Lindbergh.Both sculptural and feminine, each coat had its own unique character, different in shape and volume but sharing the same timeless design. Cocooning or slender, shapely or enveloping, cinched at the waist as a riding coat or loose and supple like a silk foulard, they were all hand-finished and heavenly to the touch, made from the finest natural fibers—alpaca, double cashmere, mohair, and soft wool. Some of the textures had the feel of the hand, slightly uneven and rough, mimicking the ragged surfaces of Giacometti’s sculptures and nicely connecting with the collection’s artistic inspiration.
27 February 2022
If forecasts are to be believed, luxe, comfort, and functionality are at the top of high-spending-customers’ post-pandemic preferences. They’ll be inclined to invest in special pieces with a timeless quality, zeroing in on a combination of longevity and style. It sounds like a good market habitat for Max Mara Atelier, a label that has been laser-focused on elevating the status of the coat from practical wardrobe staple to dramatic statement piece.The top range of the Max Mara offering, Atelier’s tightly edited selection of fall coats will be sold only through the label’s flagship stores. What distinguishes them is not only their individual design appeal, but also their artisanal execution, with handmade finishes and meticulous details adding cachet (and a hefty price tag) to their industrial production.Loosely referencing Arte Povera maestro Jannis Kounellis, the Atelier lineup includes coats in sculptural, chiseled shapes rendered in substantial yet supple fabrications; double cashmeres and alpacas were felted, brushed, and textured, and treated to achieve an almost granular and organic finish. Volumes had presence and character, suggesting an elegant gesture of protection. Egg-shaped and cocooning, trapeze-cut and sartorial, or kimono-shaped and clean-lined, they were given punch by a rich, organic palette inspired by Arte Povera’s materials: metal, charcoal, jute, driftwood, chalk, and briar root.Black leather inserts hidden under collars and contrasting coal-black taffeta linings added a sharp edge to the calm, self-confident look of the collection. A black double crêpe stole was bias-cut in scalloped petals and sensuously wrapped around an impeccably cut cardi-coat; hinting subtly at Kounellis’s dark romanticism and his love of roses, it had the right blend of drama and ease—a pretty perfect combination to brush away post-pandemic malaise.
22 April 2021
Art is often an inspiration for Max Mara Atelier’s luxurious line. Work on memory and nature by Anselm Kiefer was behind the design of the 12 coats which represented the pinnacle of the label’s impressive production. It’s a small collection distributed only in selected points of sale, exquisitely made and probably very coveted by customers. The presentation’s set up hinted at nature as a nurturing source of beauty and knowledge, reproducing a quiet wood in winter—a meditative winding path through dry foliage and bare tree branches.The coats had the colors of an autumnal landscape—warm brown, caramel, stone, beige and grey in many shades. Each one was designed individually, to accommodate different body types and to appeal to the multifarious personalities of the women lucky enough to get their hands on one of these marvels. Shapes ranged from ample, enveloping cocoons, comforting and voluptuous in their embracing warmth, to graceful redingotes. The quality of the fabrics, made from natural fibers, was soft and tactile: yarn-dyed alpaca, double cashmere, camelhair, shearling and mohair. Some textures had a slightly rustic finish, mimicking the wild feel of an unspoiled natural landscape; every coat was impeccably made, with handcrafted details: Max Mara Atelier coats are made to last.
23 February 2020
The Max Mara Atelier line is an edited, sophisticated offering of just 14 coats. Almost 80 percent of each piece is made by hand. It could be read as the label’s jewel in the crown, a celebration of the company’s industrial–meets–high-end savoir faire.The Fall collection was subtly infused with a discreet artsy inspiration, referencing Italian Transavanguardia artist Mimmo Paladino’s sculptural works. His enigmatic golden masks were hinted at in the amber-hued silk lining of a masculine pin-striped coat in double cashmere with a matching pin-striped mink collar, and in the fan-pleated back of a double-cashmere riding coat, cut with refined neatness. In the same vein, a couture-inspired high-neck collar morphing into a hood graced a cocoon-shaped zippered short coat in featherweight mohair. An archetypal masculine wrap coat in double-felted cashmere impressed with its clean, essential lines.Each coat had a unique, expressive personality, designed with different women and body types in mind. Shapes were comfortable and forgiving, practical in a sumptuous, luxurious way. The outerwear was precise, but had supple, sensuous textures. Delicate, natural shades of gray, oatmeal, camel, and rust were balanced by a deep black that added allure and strength.
23 February 2019
The Max Mara Atelier project is proof of how an industrial fashion company, producing for global markets and a vast consumer base, can not just keep its standards of quality highly consistent, but also have the ambition to set the bar even higher, venturing into almost demi-couture territory. The 12 coats the label produces every Fall and distributes only in its top 50 stores are made by hand for around 80 percent of the process. No small feat for an industrial company.Every coat in the Atelier collection had a distinctive personality, like the women that will be lucky enough to get one. Each shape was different, suited to accommodate diverse body types. Volumes were cut following different geometric templates: circle, square, rectangle. Yet the look was softly structured, gently cocooning the body in a luxurious embrace of double cashmere, alpacas, felted wool-cashmeres, camel hair wools, brushed mohairs. A touch of fur surfaced on collars and detachable gilets; mink dyed in a precious moonlight-silver shade had a shimmering brilliance. It graced the goose-down padded lining of a streamlined masculine coat, belted high at the waist with a knotted sash. Textures were richly substantial, yet had a malleable, sensual feel. Even the most rigorous shape seemed to melt into fabulous nothingness.The color palette was restrained to camel, albino, navy, khaki, and deep red. A shade of slate gray featured prominently in the collection; it was an homage to Italian artist Giuseppe Uncini, famous in the ‘60s for his sculptural works using concrete and steel, whose dense textures were referenced in a pale-gray-coated alpaca coat. Neatly trapeze-cut and trimmed with a mohair ribbon in a darker shade of cement, it looked elegant and modern, with just the right amount of cool.
23 February 2018
You can tell when a coat is handmade—or any piece of tailoring, come to that—by the stab stitching visible on the outside seams. That feature can be scrutinized by zooming in on a picture of the Max Mara Atelier camel redingote. A moment’s thought to imagine how that was all done with needles and thread by pairs of human hands, so regularly, so minutely, with such a combination of fine motor skills, eyesight, and heft (the fabric is heavy and there is a lot of it), and you’ll understand why this coat is at the top of the price bracket. In Reggio Emilia, Italy, there is a dedicated unit of designers and workers within the Max Mara complex making this small range of crème de la crème coats, which is distributed only to the label’s 50 top flagships worldwide. In essence, it is not a fashion line creating clothing that conforms to fleeting trends, but more of a harking back to the old principle of a coat as a lifetime investment. The studio quoted the influences of the photographs of Peter Lindbergh and the Italian artist and sculptor Alberto Burri. Maybe they’re detectable in the enveloping ’90s shapes and the subtle, neutral palette used, but really the attraction of these pieces of outerwear can only be appreciated when felt and put on. Case in point: the cocooning gray alpaca coat with a generous draped double-layer shawl collar that can be lifted in back to form a hood. The epitome of modern utilitarian elegance.
24 February 2017
Max Mara is a 65-year-old Italian label known for one thing: coats. Specifically, camel coats. You’ll find lamé dresses, pastel suits, and sailor pants on its ready-to-wear catwalk, butMax Mara Atelieris where the company zeroes in on what it really does best. You could describe the coats as demi-couture—about 80 percent of each one is handmade, while a few components are machine-made. Fittingly, the highlights of the Fall collection were a mix of traditional and cutting-edge: One ochre-colored coat appeared to be made of shaggy goat hair but was actually brushed-out, fluffed-up cashmere. Other coats came in nubby, substantial cashmere or fuzzy mohair, but none seemed to weigh more than a few pounds.The silhouettes were dreamy, too: Most of the coats were long and lean, stretching nearly to the ankle to give just the slightest glimpse of the cropped pants underneath. The best ones also had high, nipped-in waists—some cinched with a leather belt, others simply cut to flatter. They were a nice mix of feminine and masculine: tailored like a man’s coat, but body-skimming.
18 May 2016
Dior has flou. Chanel has tweed suits. Max Mara has coats. You can't quite call the Max Mara Atelier collection haute couture. According to a rep, about 85 to 90 percent of each coat is made by hand, and to earn the couture appellation 100 percent must be. But even without the hand-stitched linings and other details, the cabans and cape hybrids and wrap styles that the company was showing in New York yesterday would be pretty exceptional. The fabrics, of course, are top-notch, all double-face cashmere, shaggy alpaca, and downy silk duchesse. ln the end, though, it was the colors that set this offering apart. The bright pink and ice blue of two alpaca styles will stand out like beacons on a street lined with black, navy, and other neutral coats. An olive green cape-back coat with a deep rust-colored lining was more subtle, but still striking. Fox fur trimmed many of the pieces; it looked luxurious but perhaps a bit predictable. More interesting was a caban in a fuzzy animal-print jacquard. Not the real thing, and fabulously so.
11 June 2015
Inspired byThe V.I.P.s, a 1960's celluloid curiosity in which Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton find themselves stranded in a luxurious airport lounge, this collection was aimed at today's jet-setters. Classic outerwear made up the show's very important pieces. Whether in a trench, A-line, fitted, or big-collared style, they all earned their status.For this, MaxMara's more rarefied sister line, the materials have clearly enjoyed an upgrade. Coats came in either double-face cashmere or a mix of camel hair and cashmere, finished with unthreaded and natural fur. With its well-cut, well-made pieces, this collection is for a customer who, like la Taylor, appreciates the finer things in life.
23 February 2012