Whether by design or not, Max Mara established an excellent precedent at its show this morning. Thanks to a traffic accident on the corner of Via Piranesi we were—just as at Marras yesterday morning—running far later than we should have before the first show of the day had even begun. Yet inevitably a considerable crowd was milling dozily around the runway enjoying doing everything but taking their seats. Wonderfully, the music started up and the first model came out, all the way down to the photographers (fashion’s true heroes). Even then the flotsam and jetsam were so self-involved that at first they barely noticed something was up. Finally they did, and like a DJ dropping a rewind, this Max Mara show finally got on the road.
Ian Griffiths cleverly shaped this collection around Colette, the Joan Didion of the Belle Epoque. Praising “the spareness of her writing,” he craftily added: “she arouses these great passions but with very simple language and straightforward words. It struck me that that is what Max Mara does with design.” Another shared chord was that Colette’s and Max Mara’s respective syntax is most potent when considering as its subject a woman who has reached a point of maturity and experience, and who lives life in liberation, fully.
All this unfolded on the finally blank page of Max Mara’s runway in a collection that was both grown-up and sensual. Flannel all-in-one rompers based on 1920s camisoles and camiknicker sets were worn out in black or under tailoring in camel, over tights. Fagotting-stitch seams on tweed version were edged in leather. The cable-knit in a gray dress flowed in a gentle arc from shoulder down across the body to calf. Narrow skirts featured triple volants at the back (a detail that recurred at both Prada and Moschino later today). Should anyone be developing a film adaptation of Stephen Vizinczey’s In Praise Of Older Women—and they should—the costume was all here and ready to perform.
Other less racy (for Max Mara) but still stimulating details included the fetching zigzag finishing on many of the cashmere pieces and the long cardigan outerwear knits. A double breasted charcoal overcoat in cashmere and a full-shouldered black dress with cinched waist featured cocoon back details based on memories of Griffith’s own wild youth (specifically his graduate collection under the tutelage of Ossie Clark). As Colette’s great protagonist Cheri put it: “I love my past. I love my present. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve had, and I’m not sad because I have it no longer.”
