MILAN, ITALY — Season after season, Max Mara’s Ian Griffiths nails what quietly confident, cool women want to be wearing at the moment. On-trend without being overtly so, the cult Italian brand’s new Spring/ Summer 2027 collection includes boxy, safari-inspired structured jackets loaded up with utility pockets (no purse required), as well as shrunken, fuss-free lines and second-skin dresses similar to those the fashion set is coveting from other designers’ recent outings in Milan.
With lightness and accessibility at heart, these separates will be slightly easier on the wallet. Timelessness and travel have always been an integral part of the haute label’s DNA, and Max Mara continued its noteworthy pursuit of contemporary femininity here with a slew of silky maxi dresses and toppers featuring cuts taken from the 1930s oeuvre.
Fans of this time should recognise this season’s signature strikes with corporate touches and playful practicality (namely, cargo vests and sleek overalls), which telegraph a slouchy new smartness to the seasonal equation. “In all sincerity, people have been asking me who the woman is and the narrative,” reflects Griffiths. “And it’s true that every season we cite a theme or a woman from history who we think bears some relevance to what’s happening now.
But the recurrent theme running right through the narrative is the Max Mara woman,” he says, adding, “In a way, this is only the prelude to the real presentation of the lecture, which will be, for me, seeing women walk down the street wearing these clothes.” Because more than ever, the label’s focusing on the simple mantra of real clothes for real women.
“And when we’ve stuck to that idea, which was the original idea of our founder, Mara Mosley, in the 1950s, we never go wrong: although this is a runway show, it has an element of theatre about it, and I think it’s really important to hold up a mirror”, says Griffiths, hoping that everybody watching this show can recognise an aspect of themselves or at least someone that they could be that’s within reach.
“When so much of fashion, without being critical of other brands or designers, alienates and makes people feel that they’re not good enough, thin enough or young enough to wear whatever is being presented, for us the runway represents the Max Mara reality,” he opines. And hence, Insanity Luxe, the collection’s theme, looks at the value of clothes and what luxury dressing is and what clothing can do in one’s daily life. “I’m not suggesting for a minute that women fill the pockets of their organza cargo vests with notepads or instruments like compasses or explorer’s instruments, but it’s the idea of getting dressed in the morning and getting up and going places with an amount of panache that gives you the confidence that you need to get through to the evening,” he shares.
It felt like a return to Max Mara’s core, grown-up elegance. “Elegance is key to everything we do,” says Griffiths. “I think it’s a moment now where brands have to really establish, if they haven’t got one already, and develop their identities, because a woman or a person comes to Max Mara because she knows that it represents a certain kind of attitude or style; I think that’s a priority now for us, and it should be for any brand.”
On utility, he then reflects on how clothes that were derived from sporting activities like hunting or fishing denoted prestige if you wore them in town. “If you were in London and you were wearing a hunting jacket, it probably meant you had a country estate, where you could go hunting,” he shares.
“I think those associations with a kind of non-conformist glamour have remained over time. We associate someone who’s got the luxury of not necessarily having to wear a formal suit but something with pockets all over it, or something that derives from a safari jacket. It gives the feeling of glamour that you get because you imagine that that person might have been on a safari,” he says. “There’s a lot in the Max Mara archives!” he exclaims. “There’s always a theme, a narrative that we’ve always run through the brand right from the 1950s and 1960s.
We felt that it was important not to show only total looks, because not everybody is going to be able to coordinate them so that every day they can get up and make sure that the skirt matches, the top matches the shoes in the same colour. So we worked a little bit more on contrast.”
On inclusivity, he shares how the label is always careful not to show really, really thin models, because “the health of models is obviously very important to us,” he shares. “The brand does have a collection which focuses on larger sizes, which is Marina Rinaldi, and it’s part of our group with their own presentations,” he concludes, adding how, “We don’t want to tread on their toes, but Max Mara has always, ever since it was founded, believed that it’s important to create clothes for women of all sizes somewhere in the group.”
by Chidozie Obasi