MODERNIST MAGIC

Max Mara's Fall-Winter 2022 collection pays tribute to the works of pioneering Swiss Dadaist, SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP.

- KIRAN PILLAY

Since its founding in 1951, Max Mara has grown to conceptualise and create outerwear worthy of heirloom status. Thoughtfully conceived for comfort and functionality without compromising on style, the storied Italian fashion house continues to set trends through explorations of the unexpected.

This Fall-Winter 2022 season sees the brand offering homage to a creative polymath whose body of work is little known to those beyond artistic circles throughout the years until now. Sophie Taeuber-Arp was an architect, dancer, textile designer, painter, and sculptor. She was a rare modernist with a flair for imbuing the most mundane objects with an air of magic and intrigue. At Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich,

Taeuber-Arp spent much time alongside fellow artists of the avant-garde, including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, and Guillaume Apollinaire.

Their publications, performances, recitals, and readings gave way to an astounding new aesthetic: Dada. A hallmark of the Dada Movement is its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, arising as a reaction to World War I. The aesthetic adapts influence from other avant-garde movements, including Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism, with results that vary widely in diversity.