Max Mara’s Yorkshire-born creative director Ian Griffiths told journalists backstage that customers aren’t looking for clothes that make them look like experiments. Judging by their new collection, Miuccia Prada and her co-designer Raf Simons aren’t listening to Griffiths’ advice.
The designers say they’d been thinking about superheroes. To what end I’m not entirely sure as the models wore ginormous sunglasses that obliterated most of their foreheads and cheeks (excellent for a hangover).
You could probably read anything you like into the car coats, ribbed, belted leggings and mirrored shift dresses that came down the catwalk, with the models looking like wind-up versions of Mad Men’s Betty Draper. There were knee-length skirts featuring metal-trimmed cut-out circles, many of which dangled from belts via d-rings as a way of embellishing leather dresses.
In the coat department, 1950s-style duster and car styles had fake fur trims or came in animal prints. Brown and purple tweed was also a popular feature of the collection.
Pastel pink and blue cotton shirts had wire threaded through their hems which flipped and twisted around the models’ waists. Bomber jackets were neat and waist-length. There were plenty of pleated skirts and shoes that played on penny loafer themes.
The models are thin and scowling, as the dystopian music blares overhead. There is much that is deliberately ugly. So far, so Prada. If the brand was a university lecturer it would be the one who doesn’t care whether their students understand a thing or not. They’d be a campus cult, without knowing it. Interesting, because in person both Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons are focused and engaging presences.
Prada has always looked both ways; creating shows that titillate those who enjoy teasing meaning and symbolism from a collection, while delivering flawlessly constructed, sometimes quite classic-looking and increasingly logo-heavy clothes for those who venture into their stores. It’s a clever balancing trick if you can pull it off: act artfully and deliver commercially. And lately, it has been working.
Revenues are up 18 per cent in the first half of 2024. Its new brown, suede Buckle bag, a mere £4,500 for the largest version, has a waiting list and looks set to be one of the brand’s golden geese. There’s nothing hard to understand about it – it’s roomy, practical and has a discreet yet unmissable logo. But it’s shows like these that lend it mystique.
And over at Max Mara...
Not since Joanne Harris had a literary smash with her 1999 novel Chocolat has brown enjoyed such a major moment. From New York to London and now Milan, designers are newly relishing a colour that is sometimes – wrongly – disparaged as drab.
When Max Mara takes hold of it, that can never be the case. Like so many Italian brands, Max Mara starts with the fabrics: they’re supple, plush and feel delightful against skin. Feel good, feel richer could be the motto of so many designers in Milan – although compared with Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli and Brioni, Max Mara is relatively within the realms of affordability.
Ian Griffiths, its longstanding creative director (all the way from Yorkshire) likes to keep its aesthetic within the bounds of reality, too. He says he had been reading (and watching the Apple TV+ adaptation of) Lessons in Chemistry, which got him thinking about science, trigonometry and geometry – he likes to theorise and intellectualise but always remembers to bring it back to the clothes.
“I realised my mother, when she was making her clothes from paper patterns on the floor at home, was doing trigonometry,” he says.
In this collection, the geometry amounted to darts upon darts, which became an inherent design feature of the clothes, creating origami-like pleating, sharp but not exaggerated shoulders and defined waists, which created neat triangles. It’s clever geometry, but subtle. “I don’t think the Max Mara [customer] is searching for clothes that will make her look like an experiment,” Griffiths says.
Slim maxi skirts with matching cropped jackets or longer-line blazers and flat sandals make for a pleasingly smart but relaxed summer work or dinner outfit. Coats are ankle length and belted, and trousers are few and far between.
Crisp white shirts and gold jewellery pop against the espressos, crème caramels and toffees, and make a convincing case for not always wearing pastels in summer. In other words, plenty to add to your shopping list if you have the budget, but also styling ideas for anyone to try with your existing wardrobe.
Famous faces and more looks from the shows...
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