MILAN, ITALY — Form follows function. It’s a design principle that says much about Max Mara’s way of working. The brand’s approach always starts with the project. It aims to observe how women’s lives change and translate this change into pieces that combine functionality, elegance and savoir-faire. It’s rationalism that serves not to simplify, but to build.
Because simplicity, like in architecture, is not reduction: it is synthesis. It is only easy to use, never in thought. From this affinity between architecture and fashion comes The Architecture of a Coat.
Max Mara The Architecture of a Coat
This season’s inspiration comes from the brutalist and rationalist architecture of the first Max Mara factory constructed in the spirit of Bauhaus (1958-59). The coat thus becomes architecture. Not just a piece, but a structure. A shelter. A protective space between the body and the world. An element that goes with everything, on everything, designed to partner with modern life.
Like a building, the coat arises out of a balance between materials, design and function. Sharp lines, calibrated proportions, minimalist aesthetics. This approach defines all the season’s silhouettes: monsieur coats, a cape, shirt-style overcoats, redingotes, foulard coats and blousons, and, finally, the kimono, which emerges as the purest archetypal shape.
Max Mara The Architecture of a Coat
Small yet longer coats, oversized shapes that dialogue with slim lines. Research of the materials is vital: different aspects and different weights that meet innovative and textured materials. They include everything from cashmere to tweed as well as the combed fabrics with a lighter appearance.
Grey is the starting point: asphalt, cement and charcoal greys. Surrounded by mink, ebony, oatmeal, black, brick red and toasted brown shot through with unexpected touches of bois de rose, gold, burgundy and Klein blue. The blank white of the knits closes the balance. Colour is not there to decorate: it defines a personal attitude.
by Chidozie Obasi