A LASTING IMPRESSION

At Max Mara, continuity and a deep respect for the brand's DNA have given the company and its new generation of customers a legacy to believe in

Historically, tracking down a recording of Max Mara’s spring/summer 1992 show at Milan Fashion Week would have meant making a pilgrimage to the brand’s archival warehouse on the outskirts of Reggio Emilia, a charming town nestled in the heart of the Po River Valley in northern Italy. It would have meant scouring the three floors of archives: sifting through old show notes, squeezing past revolving rails stuffed with every iteration of the house’s iconic camel coat and side-stepping towers of perfectly folded cashmere turtlenecks and tomes dedicated to the art of tailoring. Fast forward to today, and the process is infinitely easier, if a little less romantic. Now with a simple Google search and the click of a button, you are presented with Yasmeen and Cindy strutting down the runway in Milan in – albeit grainy – technicolour.

So much of the world has changed thanks to the advent of the internet, but compare the footage with scenes from the house’s most recent runway presentation in Milan in September, and the similarities are striking. The 1992 runway might have had eager photographers lining the runway trying to snap “The Supers” instead of the wall of iPhones raised in a two-hand formation, and the emphasis on structured tailoring – double-breasted silhouettes and late-stage power suits – has been replaced by softer shapes, sleek darts and origami-like folds. But the sensibility – the unbreakable throughline of both collections – is unmistakably Max Mara.