MAX MARA FALL WINTER 2019 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK

THE POLITICS OF GLAMOUR

‘I like glamour. Not afraid of it.’ So declared the iconic supermodel and many times face of Max Mara, Linda Evangelista. She wasn’t, but many were. Sometimes, in the debate about fashion and feminism, glamour took a beating. Right now, everyone’s talking about fashion that empowers women, but how exactly does that work?

Max Mara says it’s all about clothes that allow you to shine. Glamour is the magic ingredient that puts the power into power dressing. More than just ’fashion’, glamour offers an armoury of personae, tricks and tools. Thinkers like Camille Paglia rejoice in that. ‘It’s men who suffer from conventions of dress,’ she says.

Max Mara’s boss lady works that advantage to the full; she is sharper, smarter and sassier than ever. What does Max Mara glamour translate into? A silhouette that’s strong at the shoulder; wider, boxier and leggier. Skirts that look as though they were cut from mens’ pants –above the knee, or ankle grazing- to wear with thigh high boots and svelte polo sweaters.

Plush alpaca, camel and cashmere artfully bound in leather. A new luxe take on puffas –with camel’s hair wadding. In trademark camel, black, white, and tan, heritage prints discovered in the archive. A bold mix of tweed, jaunty checks, proudly faux croc and zebra. And for the working woman, workwear, literally; impeccably tailored utility vests, jackets and cargo skirts with multiple zips and pockets.

The moodboard recalls that early nineties moment when the supermodels strutted the Max Mara runway in threes and fours. Happy and heroic, in tech- nicolour total looks; the kind of bright optimism that we need a bit of now. A Teddy in audacious cyan, cerulean or corn yellow? Why not? It will light up your winter, this year and many more to come. And where better to show than Università Bocconi? A world class institution whose graduates are movers and shakers –nearly half are women, and the number is rising.

‘Dressing like a woman means wearing anything a woman deems appropriate and necessary for getting the job done.’ says Roxane Gay. Max Mara goes one step further; here’s the suit that makes you look forward to getting up and dressed in the morning, here’s the dress that picks you up even when you don’t really want to go to that party, and here’s the treasured coat that you wear to that meeting at which you absolutely have to triumph.