A terrific show from Maximilian Davis, conjuring experimentation with a bite of polish.
ASKY ANY Ferragamo customer what she loves most about the label and she’ll likely mention the finely-sculpted dresses, maxi accessories and body-hugging dresses. Those embellished pieces are always a hit at retail, but designer Maximilian Davis isn’t too restless to completely stay on that course.
His Ferragamo collections are expansive—stockists include world-known stores, despite the sales aren’t reflecting the pristine perfection of the clothes. With signatures that are so established and meticulously constructed, the big question each season is how to move forward without losing invention and forward-thinking direction.
For AW25, Maximilian Davis evolves the inspiration, drawing from the world of dance, exploring the work of the German Tanztheater and the unbound expression of their liberated choreography. Anchored in visual echoes of the 1920s and 1980s – the decades key to the genre of expressionist dance – the collection explores harmonies across time through Davis’ distinct lens.
“The twenties were a moment of freedom, of people rebelling and creating spaces for themselves,” notes Davis, and straight-cut silken slips are inset with drop-waist lace appliqué, or collaged with strips of shearling, while the era’s uniform details are applied to utilitarian leathers and tailoring.
Dreamlike prints appear in flashes, while handbags are surrealistically filled with fur and off-stage wardrobes are entirely knitted from jersey yarn in fluid reconfigurations of familiar forms. “The surrealist idea of taking everyday objects and making them feel a little disturbed is something I feel very interesting,” he explains. “Creating a sense of discomfort in the expected.”
It was the same spirit that inspired choreographers’ work when reviving the Tanztheater movement in the 1970s and 1980s. “It was another time of liberation,” reflects Davis. “And their expression of love through movement feels unexpected; explored in a way that, even decades later, nobody else ever has.”
Throughout the collection, the poetic dualities of the German Tanztheater performances—emotive dialogues between love and longing, freedom and control, romance and passion—are expressed through form and fabrication: fluid satin trenches belted taut across the body; cashmere, soft against the skin, positioned next to glossy leathers; feathers flattened; poppies trailing from ribbon-like stems.
Usually, it’s all about hyper-feminine proposals at Ferragamo, but the house will get even more appeal if it keeps playing with those avant-garde shapes.
by Chidozie Obasi