If MaxMara was claiming Britain's country life and all of its joys as inspiration for the collection it showed today, it was a vision radically distanced from its source material. This was tradition transformed by technology, every hint of rough rusticity smoothed away. The white wool duffel with the knit leggings that opened the show could have stepped off a space station. Almost everything that followed had the same sci-fi, slightly android quality, as if some fashion gene splicer from the future was trying to evoke the spirit of the past by injecting, for example, a kilt into a coat.
The Highland references didn't stop there. The subtle shagginess of alpaca and mohair fabrications hinted, barely, at a wild frontier. Toward the show's end, the tartan paved with sequins was a concession to dressiness. The full-length coat-dress in a silvered plaid with a torrent of blanket fringing was one of the collection's more impressive pieces. But MaxMara's USP is smart urban style, and ultimately that was what was being communicated, whether by the kilt-belted camel jacket over leggings, by the parka and stirrup pants, or by the sharply belted coats in bonded leather. Anonymous, yes, but remarkably potent where it counts.
