Our Max Mara RTW Fall 2023 Runway Report saw the brand reinvent its classic staple camel coat—a cult classic for the Max Mara tribe. Max Mara’s creative director Ian Griffiths promises “all the latest from Camelandia.” His fall collection for the Italian brand synonymous with camel coats was cheekily titled “the Camelocracy.”
Max Mara RTW Fall 2023
One of Fashion’s longest-serving creative directors resumes finding many new ways to style out camel coats. This season it was shown rakishly hanging off one shoulder and held in place with a leather crossbody strap sheltered inside. He also showcased versions in pale teal, raspberry and lavender. In hopes of an early spring, perhaps?
The press notes centred around imagining aristocratic French physicist Émilie du Châtelet disguising herself as a “gentleman. Fen déshabillé with a soft swagger of an overcoat” to get into “the male-only coffee houses and engage with the top minds” during the Age of Reason. Or you could see modern practicality.
Runway Report
“How often do you find yourself in a gallery or a shopping mall where you feel too hot?” Griffiths asked backstage, arguing that some 18th-century ideas can find agency today.
The Fall 2023 collection brought back pannier skirts, Watteau backs and corsets, though the latter looked pretty cool quilted in nylon or velvet poking out of elephant-leg pants.
The house gave us more frills than usual, with grosgrain ribbons tied onto ponytails, which added a romantic quality to the familiar blanket coats in teddy-bear fluff, the mannish tailoring and utility parkas in camel nylon.
“Something to dream about,” Griffiths offered. “Her great forte as a woman was that with Newton and with Voltaire, she improved their work,” he marvelled.
Griffith joins the band of designers who design ready-to-wear for the new woman who is embracing her Divine Feminine and is badass. She is an intellectual with style.
Follow us on TikTok & stay updated on everything happening in Fashion. Check out the best collaborations to add to your rotation this week, follow @stylecartel on Instagram, and sign up for our newsletter for early access to the best drops sent to your inbox.