While originally planned to be staged in the gilded salons of the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg, Max Mara’s Resort 2021 collection had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. And while its collection showing would have been the grand and spectacular affair we’ve come to expect from the fashion house, creative director Ian Griffiths’ enchantment with the Russian city reflects as if held in the palace walls itself.
Reason and Romance is the title of its newest collection, dedicated to the magnificence and magic of St. Petersburg, a city that reflects Max Mara’s love of order and good design. With Prince Felix and Princess Irina in mind, romanticism is easily woven in – taken from the gilded salons of the Yusupov Palace at the height of the Belle Epoque, with extravagant fil coupé fabrics and ornate embroideries paying homage to the Russian royals.
Max Mara had the privilege of access to the State Hermitage Museum’s archives, to see the finery worn by Felix, Irina and their guests up close. “They are the romantic foil to Max Mara’s famously rational tailoring,” the brand says, embodied in a handkerchief hemmed skirt paired with a double face tunic in a distinctly modernist feel, and a diaphanous drop-waisted dress contrasted with the iconic Teddy Bear Coat in milky white.
