‘Timeless style’: Italian womenswear label Max Mara marks 75 years – interview

When Italian label Max Mara celebrated its 75th anniversary earlier this year with an exhibition and fashion show at the Long Museum in Shanghai, it released three limited-edition coats to commemorate the milestone. The coats, which sold out quickly, were all reissues of archival pieces, including one dating back three decades. Although the brand’s ateliers reworked them in materials such as extremely light pure cashmere, their silhouettes remained the same, showcasing their relevance after so many years. Established in 1951 by Achille Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy, Max Mara is a go-to brand for women with things to do and places to be. Unlike many labels that make grand statements on the runway – often at the expense of serving their customers – Max Mara has always prioritised its loyal clientele. Its well-made wardrobe staples look fabulous at its Milan runway shows and just as fabulous on real women who want to look well put-together but not like they’re trying too hard. “It’s always been part of our DNA: clothing and the idea of really having great wardrobe staples, garments that last, that are not necessarily the bling-bling pieces,” explained Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti in an interview in Shanghai. “And look, there’s nothing wrong with having special pieces, but I think that Max Mara serves as the ground – I would call it the white canvas of every woman’s wardrobe.” A board member of the Max Mara Fashion Group and the granddaughter of founder Achille, Maria Giulia sees herself as the steward of a brand that over the years has stayed true to its values while also evolving to cater to the changing needs of female luxury consumers. “There is a custody, a sense of protection towards these values when it comes to product development, when it comes to the consistency and the truth to these values, and how to preserve them in order to ultimately preserve the integrity of the brand, which is the most important thing that we have,” she says. Maria Giulia, who spends a lot of time in the company archives, believes that the secret to Max Mara’s staying power is its consistency. “Craftsmanship, fabric research, quality, the cleanness of our line, the idea of a timeless style that becomes almost like a white canvas across generations for women. And then, obviously, women are at the centre of our universe,” she says. “Those have been pillars that were true in 1951 and are true in 2026, and will probably be true in 25 years. But you also have to evolve. You have to use the past as a guideline but not be stuck there.” When Achille began to make ready-to-wear in 1951, his first collection consisted of a suit and a coat, which to this day still represent the bread and butter of Max Mara’s offerings. You really cannot talk about Max Mara without mentioning its bestselling coats – from the 101801, first created in 1981 by Anne-Marie Beretta, to the Teddy Bear, designed by current creative director Ian Griffiths and released in 2013. An unofficial member of the founding family, Griffiths has been at Max Mara since 1987, working alongside Achille and his descendants to help turn the brand into the global powerhouse it is today. For him Max Mara represents the energy and vibrancy of city life – places such as New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and Milan – where women on the go like to wear beautiful garments that don’t make them look like fashion victims. “Max Mara is a metropolitan phenomenon for a woman who lives in the city, works in the city and just wishes to engage with the city fully. So Max Mara is about the city, and about modernity,” says Griffiths. Max Mara shows – hot tickets at Milan Fashion Week – are often inspired by historic figures such as the Brontë sisters or Matilda of Tuscany, but are always rooted in reality. “Max Mara exists off the ready-to-wear collection, which is not done for the show or for the runway,” says Griffiths. “We sell bags, shoes and other accessories, but primarily Max Mara is a ready-to-wear brand designed for real life. I’ve always thought with a show anyway that the moment that you enter the world of fantasy or theatre, it’s never theatrical enough, never big enough or long enough or spectacular enough to create an impact. But when you stay within the realms of something that is real but perfect, then anyone in the audience can somehow see themselves in that; they can relate to it. I always want Max Mara to be relatable and never be obscure. I want someone to look at Max Mara and think, I could be like that. I could look like that. I could be that person. I would like to be that person.” One way women around the world can get a piece of the Max Mara world is through one of its signature coats, which unsurprisingly took centre stage at the Shanghai exhibition and have come to define the brand’s relentless focus on pragmatic functionality and chic design. I want someone to look at Max Mara and think, I could be like that … I could look like that … I would like to be that person Ian Griffiths, Max Mara “The relationship you have with a coat is different to that with any other item in your wardrobe,” says Griffiths. “If you think about the life expectancy of a coat and the way that you interact with it, it’s something that you perhaps wear every day. If you only have one coat in your wardrobe, then you do wear it every day. If you have two coats in your wardrobe, you wear them every other day. It’s something that becomes part of your life. I always think of a coat as being like a house for the street, because when you’re not at home, you’re in the street, and it performs the same functions. You live in your coat. It protects you. It talks about your image from the outside, too. So you develop an emotional relationship with a coat over the years, and it becomes a kind of companion for your life. You can’t say that about any other item in your wardrobe.” At a time when many brands try to be all things to all people and chase short-lived trends to cater to fickle luxury consumers, Max Mara is the rare example of a house that has never lost sight of its customers: demanding women looking for quality clothes with just the right amount of glamour. “Achille Maramotti’s mantra was to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and that philosophy is as valid today as it was then,” says Griffiths. “The idea of attainability was on his mind when he founded the company. It wasn’t just attainability in an economic sense because he wanted his clothes to be expensive, but at a level where a significant amount of the population could afford them. He wanted them to be attainable, relatable from a design point of view, so that you looked at that coat and thought, I could wear that coat. I could live in that coat or that suit. This simple idea has carried the company through 75 years of growth and 75 years of style.”