Secrets Of A Fashion Vault

The cherished possessions and hidden gems inside a sartorial treasure trove.

- Erik Maza

“Questo è meraviglioso.” Even if you don’t speak Italian, it’s hard to miss the enthusiasm of the designer Laura Lusuardi. She lights up, her expression suddenly bursting with pride and fascination, gripped, it seems, even all these years after she acquired it, by the construction of a pristine 1954 white Chanel suit. “Molto emozionante.”

Lusuardi is a grande dame at Max Mara, and she is standing inside the archive and library she persuaded the Italian label to assemble. The trove comprises Max Mara’s storied past (which includes the work of Anne-Marie Beretta, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, and Karl Lagerfeld) as well as fashion from the 20th century and beyond, a world-class collection of 300,000 garments, accessories, and artifacts that comes as near to museum quality as a collection in private hands can. For fashion students it’s an education; for the impeccably turned-out women who have worshiped at the church of Max Mara for years, it’s a site worthy of pilgrimage. Many of the label’s devotees have, in fact, donated items from their own wardrobes to the collection, women who rank among the world’s best-dressed, past and present: the late, eccentric art dealer and Andy Warhol subject Holly Solomon; the late Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani; the clotheshorse and stylist Carine Roitfeld.