hat I love about New York
is that you never know
what is going to happen
to you. It’s always
a surprise,” says MaxMara’s Maria Giulia
Prezioso Maramotti. “The energy here
is incredible.”
One thing that can be counted on, these
days at least, is a brutally icy winter. And
so it was on a chilly 12°C morning in
January, that editors, retailers and bloggers
from around the globe converged on
a cavernous gallery in the city’s Chelsea
neighbourhood for MaxMara’s pre-fall
2015 presentation. The Italian house
decided to hold the runway show in
Manhattan – about 6,550 kilometres from
its headquarters in Reggio Emilia, Italy –
because its environs inspired the season.
More specifically, the looks riffed on the
past, present and future of downtown New
York City, which was once home to
nightlife dens like the Roxy and is now
occupied by upscale shops, innovative
restaurants and the newly relocated
Whitney Museum of American Art.
Opening this month, the museum will
celebrate with a party sponsored by
MaxMara and, in honour of the
partnership, MaxMara collaborated with
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the
architects behind the new building, on the
Whitney bag. “As an Italian company, we
really loved that Mr Piano is an Italian
architect designing one of the most famous
contemporary art museums in America,”
Maramotti says. “It’s a big statement.”
MaxMara’s relationship with the
Whitney can be traced back to when
the Maramotti family lent works from
their private collection to the museum.
And in April 2014, the Whitney honoured
the Maramottis as one of the three winners
of its prestigious American Art Award.
“The Maramotti family has demonstrated
outstanding support for the arts
internationally,” says Adam Weinberg, the
museum’s Alice Pratt Brown director.W
WORDS: EMILY HOLT
A night at
the museum
FASHION MEETS art in a celebration of women, an
Italian house and New York’s beloved Whitney Museum.
“MaxMara has been a great friend of
the museum for years, and we are
enormously grateful.”
Culture in New York City has long been
an influence in MaxMara designs. For
instance, resort 2014 referenced the look of
early-80s American new wave group
Tom Tom Club, and included city-street-
friendly sneakers. Luxe cashmere slip
dresses in the autumn/winter ’14/’15
collection recalled a Carolyn Bessette-
Kennedy mode of minimalism, a rare
departure into the 90s. “We very often
refer back to New York in the 70s because
so much happened that was, at the time,
regarded as avant-garde but now has
become part of establishment culture,” says
MaxMara head of design Ian Griffiths,
citing the highbrow exhibition treatment
now bestowed upon photographers of
the era like Harry Shunk, Jeannette
Montgomer y Ba r ron or A l la n Ta nnenbau m.
“It was a huge culture quake.”
The manner in which the MaxMara
team interpreted the theme this season has
three layers (four if you count the
soundtrack mixed by legendary club DJ
Johnny Dynell, which included Lou Reed’s
Street Hassle). First, Griffiths and the
atelier explored what goes on after dark by
pairing pieces like a disco-ready gold mesh
mini with a black ribbed cashmere hoodie
or throwing an ultra-suede, fur-lined polar-
vortex-ready parka over a slinky metallic
tunic. “We wanted to show the feeling of it
being freezing outside; you’re going to
a club and so you’re having to wrap up,”
Griffiths explains. One coat, made of
reversible nylon and cashmere with a fox-
trimmed hood, is a near identical recreation
of a MaxMara coat from the early 80s
unearthed from the archives by the
design team.
The second part of the collection came to
Griffiths via the radio when he heard
a report on the BBC’s World Service about
an initiative in America to reintroduce
native plants and animals to urban areas.82 – MAY 2015in VOGUE