Max Mara: North meets south in cruise 2026 show

Fashion Network

6 hours ago

served up what designer Ian Griffiths termed "pragmatic feminism" in a splendidly elegant show Tuesday night inside the Versailles of Italy, bringing to a close this year's season of major cruise collections.
Juxtapositions ran throughout the collection and clothes. Inspired by the impoverished heroines fighting for a more beautiful life in post-war Italian Neo-Realist cinema, that led to a superbly chic collection of haute-functional elegance.
Three quarters-of-a-century ago, when Max Mara was founded in 1951, it would have been possible to imagine the characters played by Sophia Loren or Silvana Mangano in movies like "L'Oro di Napoli" or "Riso Amaro" even dreaming of entering the Royal Palace of Caserta; a ginormous structure built by Bourbon kings that is sometimes termed the Swansong of the spectacular era of Baroque.
Yet, the opening look featured a model in a pair of shorts just like those worn by the steamy and sultry Mangano, playing an impoverished peasant working the fields of the Po Valley in Riso Amaro. Instead at Max Mara, the same short pants came in a new outfit that combined them with matching bra, flowing blazer and dragoon thigh boots.
In this look and many others, Griffiths linked north and south in the tailoring, working with Sartoria Cuomo, a Neapolitan tailor to reimagine the local deconstructed men's blazer for women. Featuring broad lapels combined with soft silhouettes, where the seams pucker where the sleeve meets the shoulder.
The UK designer also played skilfully with another Naples resource – Marinella, which provided some charming geometric silks - playing on paisley or church motifs – and cut into poolside chemises, floaty jackets, asymmetrical sarong skirts and foulards that several gents in the audiences sported.
Pre-show, the 300 guests sipped prosecco, as stars like Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joey King and Alexa Chung admired the truly magnificent one kilometer-long series of cascades, interspersed with five monumental fountains, designed by architect, Luigi Vanvitelli.
Entitled "Venus Vesuviana", overall the collection riffed on the power of dressing, and how great fashion can empower self-confident women.
'I loved the contrast of a woman descending the palace's incredibly grand staircase not in a ball gown but a modern Max Mara look. And making you feel like she owns it,' beamed Griffiths, at a pre-show preview.
As ever at Max Mara, there were highly authoritative coats – creamy cashmere dressing gown cuts with deep patch pockets; lapel-free and cinch-waist cocoons; or impeccable double-breasted. Looking hyper refined in the remarkable location.
Reggia di Caserta as it is known locally, is a giant Baroque city within a palace, built to contain king, court, courtiers and government within 1,200 rooms and 130,000 square-meters of floor space.
Work first began in 1752 under Charles VII, the King of Naples, who ironically never spent a night in the palace, after he abdicated seven years later to become King of Spain. Designed to rival Versailles, the palace contains possibly the grandest staircase on the planet. Doubly ironically, it was only completed in 1845, just 15 years before the kingdom was overthrown by Garibaldi in 1860, completing the first stage of Italian unity with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
The palace has gone through multiple eras, from an aeronautical academy, to being bombed by the Allies during WW2 and looted subsequently. Albeit, then very carefully late restored by the Italian state.
Which brings it to the beginning of Neo Realist cinema and the heroines that inspired this show – a meeting of North Italian uprightness and stylistic gravitas and Southern sensuality. Though containing that essential unity – the Italian love of a Bella Figura or always showing the best of oneself.
Riso Amaro was released in 1951, exactly the same year that Achille Maramotti founded Max Mara to create coats and eventually a whole wardrobe for modern women. Three quarters-of-a-century later, the Max Mara Group boasts annual sales in excess of €1.9 billion.
'Max Mara is about serving the woman that Achille identified – a pragmatic feminist. At Max Mara we would never discuss the word feminist for years. But then we realized the Max Mara woman is not a bra burner but the woman who wanted to achieve something with her own means,' concluded Griffiths, who was applauded to his seat for a celebratory dinner on perfectly decorated tables of flowers and crystal glass, for a dinner of octopus, fine vegetables and local Falanghina wine.
Earning every clap, after one of his most succinct and elegant collection for the house.