Let it snow!
Max Mara is banking on a long winter, unfurling a cozy, arty take on après-ski for its fall collection — and letting loose with teddy-bear fabric, thick wools, quilting and plush knits.
The generous, and at times bulky, silhouettes had a kooky charm that reached a zenith with Teletubbie-esque pants in that teddy-bear fluff. The furry shorts, meanwhile, paired well with a sleek bomber jacket and worn by Adut Akech.
It turns out Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths had taken inspiration from Sophie Taeuber-Arp, a Swiss artist whose puppet performances at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, part of the Dada movement, were clues to the playful shapes that paraded the runway loop.
Taeuber-Arp emphasized “modernity with magic” in her art practice, and this is what Griffiths aimed to impart with his rustic knitwear, bearing naive, geometric patterns; with trousers in almost clownish proportions, and with his regal, bell-shaped skirts. There were also sleeker shapes, including a terrific shirtdress that extended almost to the floor.
“What I wanted to express in this collection was the variety of Max Mara women. So the collection works on long and short, wide and narrow, micro and macro, and each exit in the show is an individual personality,” Griffiths said in an interview.
One could imagine French architect and midcentury design guru Charlotte Perriand — whose euphoric pose overlooking an Alpine scene wearing only trousers was on Griffith’s mood board — roaming around the ski lodges she designed in one of the big, lustrous coats.
“I was thinking of a wintery winter. I think we have a nostalgia for the alpine environment, for the cold,” Griffiths mused.
In a season of barely there, sexed-up fashions, this Max Mara collection felt as inviting as a crackling fire on a chilly evening.
