A Force Awakening

For the first time in its longstanding history, revered Italian brand Max Mara rings its audience into its past in a retrospective Resort ’19 collection. Here, we discuss its past, present and future with Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, the granddaughter of the house’s founding father.

- Kames Narayanan

“WE ARE KNOWN as the silent giant,” says Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, Max Mara’s retail director for North America and granddaughter of the Italian house’s founder, in an email correspondence. The moniker “silent giant” reads appropriate for Max Mara, whose creative lead has largely ascribed to anonymity and the history of the house itself, less discussed.

For years, questions pertaining to the identity of its designer — who has been at the helm for three decades — drew a blank. The fashion set was acquainted with Max Mara as a quiet force in the industry, with its beginnings rooted in an Italian heritage. With the inconspicuous identity of its designer detracting nothing from the house’s visual language, it has solely been known for what it has to offer its customers.

Beyond its line-up of camel coats and unmistakable sophistication that is synonymous with its identity, there is much to be learnt about Max Mara. The house’s past, largely gone unacknowledged in its almost seven-decade long run was, for the first time, recognised at its Resort ’19 showcase, which was held at the Collezione Maramotti (the private collection of contemporary art of Achille Maramotti, the founder of Max Mara) museum in Reggio Emilia.

The history of Max Mara harks back to 1951, when senior Maramotti, then a 24-year-old law graduate, made the pivotal decision to carve a career out of his passion for haute couture passed down from his great-grandmother. Much like his resolve in deviating from a premeditated career in law, senior Maramotti's way of work at Max Mara deviated from the norm. At a time when clothing was still mostly handmade in Italy, his manufactured ready-to-wear preposition was an untried idea.

In the years following its introduction, Max Mara rose in the brand rankings, eventually taking its place amongst purveyors of luxury in Italy’s fashion industry.