Chambers immediately got to work compiling a Pinterest board full of ideas for the line, “right down to the carrier bag”. She even had a name for it: Re-Find. This chimed with her environmentally friendly concept, which was to produce one design for every key item. “Just one. That’s all anybody needs. I wanted to do the definitive, so that if I blindfolded myself and took two things, they would go with each other like a perfect jigsaw puzzle,” she explains. Keen to focus on sustainability, Chambers hoped to utilise all the surplus fabrics she assumed were languishing in Max Mara’s warehouses. “But, amazingly, they don’t have any. They’re so organised and ahead of the curve that they use it all,” she says.
The stylist turned designer had a clear idea of the customer she was designing for, honed over years of attending Max Mara’s fashion shows in Milan. “I wanted to be very respectful of the brand—not throw the baby out with the bathwater—though also attract a new customer as well. Max Mara has so much heritage, but I also wanted to break boundaries a little bit and push it on. It’s real clothes for real women. I really believe in it, and I really want women to buy it.”
And given Chambers’ vast experience in the womenswear market—and the collection’s easy layers, chic prints and exquisite craftsmanship—it’s inevitable that women will.
This article originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of marie claire Australia.
