February 28, 2025 |
A Max Mara research trip to Brontë country, where designer Ian Griffiths was granted access to the literary sister’s archive, including their clothes, sparked the idea for his AW25 collection. Backstage he declared Jane Eyre a “cool girl.”
But how to do the full Brontë without it looking like a costume drama? Griffiths is ultra attuned to the needs of Max Mara women, who live in the real world of big jobs and boardrooms, not in a Netflix bonkbuster.
His 21st century Brontë girl wears redingote jackets – fitted through the body, cinched at the waist and full at the hem. Some came with leather sleeves, or were cut off at the waist, others came with detachable linings or were cut into gilets, for “something you could wear to go marching out across the moors,” said Griffiths.
He is the master of silhouette and showed his design prowess in the expert way he handled the volumes of floor sweeping double face belted coats, great costs, parkas and oversized country-style gilets as well as the sumptuous velvet maxi skirts. Many looks were double belted at the waist and worn with square neck tanks that resembled bustiers. With its long sweeping silhouettes, the collection had an elegance and a sense of romance because Max Mara’s high flying boss ladies follow their passions. It didn’t look like costume. It looked like luxury, thanks in part to a rich palette of berry reds, mossy greens, autumnal brackens and Cascia, the name given by Max Mara insiders to the gradations from light to dark beige of raw cashmere.
Photography courtesy of Max Mara.
