“We are busy with fantasies,” said Ian Griffiths before a show that is so fantastic as everyone who is called up at Max Mara during his 38 years. Speaking in a preview room with a view of the bay of Naples, with Mount Vesuvius breeding on the horizon, he continued: “We act in romantic ideas. So in this collection we talk about Naples, we talk about a fantasy by Naples. And for me Naples is the most Italian city where you have the most Italian city.”
These rhetorical rumors of the lace -up designer meant the upcoming fashion outburst, in a collection that he had entitled the title Vesuvian Venus. Griffiths’ Moodboard contained Sophia Loren in it in Naples* and Silvana Mangano in Bitter riceTwo volcanic lusting protagonists in what the designer described as the cinematically driven rise from the 1950s of the Italian style as a globally known fashion trope.
Tonight attending the show was Gwyneth Paltrow, who in the 1950s in 1999 The talented MR Ripley played in a retrospective example of the genre. Said Griffiths: “Contemporary culture has become pretty homogeneous … So at every place you have to go back to his Golden Age to discover cultural identity.”
Max Mara, founded in 1951, was himself a product of that Golden Age, and tonight was the first chapter of the 75 -year anniversary celebration. The show location, just outside of Naples, was the Royal Palace of Caserta: reportedly the world’s largest royal home (despite the long -standing deportation of the original royals). Griffiths said: “We chose it, simply because it was the most impressive place we saw. And believe me, we saw many impressive places in and around Naples.”
This fantasy collection in a fantasy location was woven from different strands. Central were the short shorts that Mangano wore in that film on The Moodboard. They were used as a contrast point between the male tropics of Napolitan coordination assessment (Vincenzo Cuomo took care of his expertise) plus the beautiful 1951-Vintage archive patterns contributed by E.Marinella (Menswear’s Loveliest Tiemaker), at an emergency of Fiere Femin Fashion Figurations. A teddy jacket in Napolitan-Gelato pink, an ivory rib-knitted body set with sequins, and a black woolen work shirt was one of the clothing whose crooked sweetheart necklines south of the typical thresholds of Max Mara ventured, such as soothing ice cream that sijden.