Ian Griffiths described pre-fall as “a group constructed on simplicity and flexibility, two concepts everybody claims to like, but few designers dare to actually embrace. Trend has a behavior of mistaking complexity for cleverness,” he went on. “Designing one thing easy that individuals really wish to put on may be one of many hardest tips within the e book.” He argued that in structure, nobody would ever counsel {that a} minimalist like John Pawson is one way or the other much less proficient than a designer of Gothic follies. “Ornament in structure is hardly a badge of fine design, typically the alternative. Trend, nonetheless, tends to lose its nerve, drifting towards embellishment as a substitute of trusting restraint.”
Max Mara has been constantly true to rules of practicality, high quality, wearability, and good design since its inception. “At a second when the world is craving readability, our prospects, who’re profitable, busy ladies, need edited selections: fewer items, extra potentialities,” remarked Griffith. “The aim shouldn’t be making extra garments, however higher ones. To promote much less, in the event you like, and promote it higher, giving her precisely what she wants, and nothing she doesn’t.”
Modernism as an inspiration has all the time suited Max Mara: slender, uncomplicated strains, no ornamental thrives, and by no means development for development’s sake. The home’s aesthetic has advanced over time, however its core has barely shifted, and that continuity grew to become the start line for pre-fall. Champions of the modernist aesthetic like Nancy Cunard and Dorothy Parker had been on Griffith’s moodboard, whereas diving into the archives revealed a 1989 jacket so sharply tailor-made it might nonetheless sit in a contemporary wardrobe. Paired with slouchy, low-waisted trousers, it grew to become a template for the gathering’s uncomplicated, glossy look as a reminder that “good design ages much better than developments ever do.”
Rendered in darkish blue and white, the breezy assortment riffed on Max Mara’s signatures: impeccably tailor-made but fluid pantsuits; bias-cut attire that glide from day into night; a graphic summary floral as the only counterpoint; and plissés deployed so as to add a flicker of motion.
Griffiths has steered Max Mara’s inventive route for an impressively lengthy stretch—a rarity on right now’s trend merry-go-round of fixed adjustments. Requested in regards to the present state of trend, he was characteristically measured, but he stated that he doesn’t envy designers anticipated to reinvent a home in a single season. “Really understanding a model, its heritage, values, and visible language, takes time, and speeding dangers discarding what issues most.” Too typically now, he famous, you see the designer earlier than you see the model. “At Max Mara, it has by no means been about private aptitude or displaying cleverness, however about the home itself,” he remarked. That restraint, he instructed, takes confidence, maybe one earned via longevity. After a turbulent season crowded with debuts, his hope is that issues settle, and that enduring manufacturers are as soon as once more allowed to talk in their very own, distinctive voices.