Max Mara‘s Resort 2025 (Cruise 2025) collection took center stage in the enchanting city of Venice, where the brand wove a compelling narrative inspired by the city’s rich history and legendary explorer Marco Polo. Held at the iconic Palazzo Ducale, the show featured a stunning array of garments that paid homage to the ancient dialogue between East and West, with Venice serving as a crossroads of cultures.
Creative director Ian Griffiths delved deep into the city’s past, drawing inspiration from Marco Polo’s travels along the Silk Road and his time at the court of Kublai Khan. The Max Mara Resort 2025 collection effortlessly blends influences from Gothic architecture, Hindu, Zoroastrian and Chinese motifs, creating a harmonious fusion of styles that celebrates the beauty that comes from the meeting of different cultures.
The color palette, anchored in the brand’s signature camel hue, was expanded to include nuanced shades of silk reminiscent of those Marco Polo might have brought back from ancient Japan via Constantinople. Griffiths explains, “I was interested in exploring the beauty generated by the meeting of cultures. Embodied by this city, which in the Middle Ages was a crossroads between East and West. The cradle of what we today call luxury.”
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Outerwear was the focus, with bold designs ranging from “robes de chambre” to parkas, trench coats and tabards. The standout pieces were the spectacular silk duster coats and asymmetrically draped velvet dresses, both of which featured prints inspired by the mosaics of San Marco. For Griffiths, these prints held a special significance, as they harkened back to his own past. “My last collection during school was inspired by the mosaics of San Marco. I made it together with a colleague who attended Manchester Polytechnic. I took those studies out of the drawers… it’s exciting to see them on the catwalk here today,” he revealed.
The show’s silhouettes were equally captivating, with large flared and puffed sleeves, turbans created in collaboration with renowned milliner Stephen Jones, and velvet pannier skirts dominating the runway. The overall aesthetic seemed to be inspired by the great paintings of Bellini and Carpaccio, housed in the Accademia Galleries, which visually narrate the meeting and occasional clash of different cultures.
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