Laura Lusuardi, Max Mara’s Fashion Coordinator, has been at the company for just over 60 years, and during that time I’d wager she’s forgotten more about the business of beautiful clothing than most of us will ever learn. Since 2009 she has overseen Atelier, a hyper-rarified Max Mara capsule that exists outside the central MaxMara remit, first established by founder Achille Maramotti, to create luxurious womenswear on an industrial scale with a hand-tailored quality.
While very much about handicraft, Atelier is not about scale: instead it is a forum for Lusuardi and her team to R&D experimental forms of the garment that has defined Max Mara since day one, the coat. This season, the collection was presented adjacent to Max Mara mainline’s Naples-based resort show by Ian Griffiths. This seemed a pragmatic way to put these made-to-order samples in the line of sight of some of the house’s core clients.
Lusuardi greeted us next to a moodboard inhabited by photographs of Diana Vreeland, Maria Callas, and Jackie Kennedy, who the designer all identified as “radical women.” Kennedy was photographed wearing a swim-cap while vacationing in Capri, and the set-up of the coated mannequins reflected that: each one wore ornately modern-looking (yet vintage), gorgeous mid-century swim-caps. The range of garments beneath them suggested that “radical” was in this instance meant as a synonym of “individualistic”: the collection broadly saw classical couture shapes from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as 1980s silhouettes, processed through a lushly minimalist filter, and then—quite surprisingly—seasoned with a soupcon of grunginess that was telegraphed by a Kurt Cobain cameo.
Fabrics included double-faced cashmere, boiled and treated wool, zibeline-effect cashmere and delicately weathered leather. My absolute favorite was an oversized knee-length coat in a green-touched wool cashmere mix (I think) whose structural seaming and cinches were drawn from a type 3 denim jacket. An oversized hoodie-coat in washed cashmere had that zibeline-shagginess to the touch yet retained much more defined lines than its jersey prototype.
A long black coat was patterned in a gold check jacquard to reflect the design of Cobain’s shirt and inject a spirit of nonconformism into this rarified worn milieu. A paneled piped and dyed shearling jacket and a slouchy short leather jacket were both minor masterpieces. Said Lusuardi: “These coats are not for wearing to church. They are for wearing every day, with your own style, customized and personal.”