RIVETING RIVIERA

Max Mara's IAN GRIFFITHS pays homage to iconic women of the '30s in its Spring/Summer 2023 Collection.

- SUREKHA GOGULAN

For its Spring/Summer 2023 collection, Max Mara's creative director lan Griffiths paints a picture of a blue horizon, taking inspiration from women of the 1930s like Renée Perle and Eileen Gray. A time which Griffiths described as a "melting pot of culture and ideas every summer" - when the likes of Pablo Picasso and F. Scott Fitzgerald would rub shoulders at the Riviera.

Romanian model Renée Perle was known to many as the lover and muse of French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue. Perle was the quintessential muse because of her alluring figure, effortless confidence, and distinctive flair.

The fashion world will always be impressed by the intriguing woman because of her finger-waved hair, her expertly painted cupid's bow lips, her long neck, and her stunningly avant-garde sense of style - using separates as resort wear in 1930s Southern France, truly personifying the Riviera style. Nearly a century later, she would continue to be a prominent figure in fashion and play muse once again, this time to Griffiths.