Achille Maramotti founded Max Mara in 1951. To mark its 70th anniversary as a byword for excellence in women’s professional power dressing and the rightful ascent of its customers to assume by merit positions of professional power, the brand transformed a room of Milan’s Triennale design museum to resemble London’s Regent Street during festivities, with festival flags that were printed with advertising graphics that Max Mara had commissioned in its very first decade of existence.
In this setting upholstered with floating banners, Ian Griffiths showcased a group of strong and determined women dressed in a perfect match between British and Italian style.
The show began with a coronation of a Max Mara queen, who received a teddy bear-like coat in lieu of a crown. This gesture announced the British theme of the collection and symbolized the practical spirit of the company that Achille Maramotti established in 1951 to dress real women.
The feel was heavily Anglocentric. This was because Max Mara has long looked to London for source codes. It also reflected Griffiths’s twin identities as a young punk kid in the British capital and, more recently, as a content rural gent in Suffolk.
Titled ‘’1951’’, Max Mara’s protagonists for its Fall/Winter 2021 collection were oversized bombers (printed with ‘’1951’’ on the back, they nevertheless nodded to the past) and thornproof jackets in super soft alpaca inspired by utility clothing. Quilted bombers and checkered suits made with graphic tartans follow suit, while other looks were composed of a range of Aran sweaters, hunting jackets, quilted vests, equestrian capes, British kilts, oversized knitwear sweaters, wool jackets reminiscent of biker jackets, thick socks, and brown leather ankle boots.
It was not all neutral, however; yellows and greens appeared like shoots of new growth in a winter landscape, and there were also tailored urban silhouettes. The rural-meets-urban attitude united the collection, offering British rural style with Italian flair.
