Max Mara—
The Coat as a Manifesto
In an era of speed and spectacle, Ian Griffiths creates moments of silence. As Creative Director of Max Mara, he understands fashion not as a stage but as a delicate fabric of meaning—an architecture of restraint and elegance that places the modern woman at the center. The famous coat, once designed as a symbol of female independence, remains the focal point of this vision.
(Fashion History) Once a punk with a rebellious streak, Ian Griffiths has become a quiet revolutionary in fashion at Max Mara. Through his designs, he cultivates an aesthetic of clarity and calm—a vision where craftsmanship, discipline, and emotion outlast spectacle. Griffiths thinks in terms of proportion rather than ornament, in durability instead of trend. With his creations, he does not produce seasonal accessories; rather, he creates a framework for identity, a structure for life.
Form as Empowerment
When Achille Maramotti founded Max Mara in 1951, post-war Italy was just beginning to emerge from the ruins—reshaped by design and innovation. Rational constructions, material honesty, and functional beauty defined this era on all levels: from architecture to fashion. Maramotti introduced American industrial methods into European tailoring, combining precision with Italian craftsmanship. It was a highly pragmatic vision of progress—design stripped down to the essentials, created to function and evolve.
Long before gender neutrality became a topic in fashion, Max Mara began rethinking it. In the late 1950s, the house transformed the traditionally masculine camel coat into a garment for women—a quiet revolution that turned a symbol of patriarchal authority into an emblem of personal independence. Made with the same precision and clarity as men’s tailoring, the camel coat offered women a new kind of strength—unobtrusive, intellectual, subtly radical. What began as a quiet rebellion has now evolved into a language of liberation, where structure serves movement and confidence is defined on one’s own terms.
Investing in a classic Max Mara coat means embracing this attitude. Crafted with precision and designed for longevity, this is outerwear that embodies cultural intelligence—the understanding that true luxury lies not in excess but in the refinement of the essential.
CAMEL WRAP COAT WITH KNIT INSERTS
The Max Mara woman
invests in what endures—not
for status, but for herself.
Long Verna belted camel hair coat in forest green
Design as Logic
When Ian Griffiths joined Max Mara at the end of the 1980s, he entered with the eye of an architect. He initially studied architecture at the University of Manchester—surrounded by the pulse of the New Wave scene, which sharpened his sense of rebellion and proportion—before learning to translate structure into style at the Royal College of Art in London.
Griffiths often emphasizes that his education shaped both instinct and discipline. Manchester gave him raw energy—the knowledge that creativity can arise from noise and rebellion. London taught him to channel that energy and turn instinct into structure. Here he developed his sense of functionality—the conviction that good design lies not in gesture but in intention. He approaches clothing like an architect: seams become lines, cuts the blueprint, silhouettes the volume of space.
During his time at the Royal College of Art, Griffiths participated in a Max Mara design competition—and won. In 1987, he eventually joined the Maison. What began as an academic experiment has grown into one of fashion’s most enduring creative dialogues: an architect who found his calling in wool and cashmere.
LONG WOOL COAT CHERRY
The Coat – Architecture of Confidence
Max Mara coats forgo decorative elements. They are structures of confidence—architectures of presence designed to accompany a woman’s life, not define it. Few garments embody modernism as clearly as the cut of the “101801,” designed by Anne-Marie Beretta in 1981. Its geometry is precise, its purpose absolute, its appearance both rational and sensual. Every evolution—from the sculptural “Manuela Coat” to the tactile “Teddy Coat,” introduced by Ian Griffiths in 2013—continues the same quiet conversation between structure and emotion. Over the years, Griffiths has pursued this architectural intelligence in his collections with consistent design precision.
The Fall/Winter 2014 collection explored the language of rational Italian modernism—monumental silhouettes in camel and concrete hues, which spoke of durability and clarity. Two years later, the Fall/Winter 2016 collection condensed this idea into a Bauhaus-inspired study—with geometric volumes that felt both protective and weightless.
For the 2019 Resort collection, Griffiths drew inspiration from Eileen Gray, architect and icon of modern interiors. Her ability to unite functional discipline with poetic intimacy uniquely reflects Max Mara’s DNA. Griffith translated Gray’s architectural codes—clear geometry, muted tones, tactile surfaces—into tailoring and outerwear that felt both structured and soft.
The conversation between structure and space became tangible in the Spring/Summer 2022 collection, presented at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao—an architectural dialogue in motion, where folds responded to curves and light reflected the fabric. In his current Fall/Winter 2025 collection, Griffiths turns from architecture to literature, inspired by the Brontë Sisters—women of intellect and conviction whose strength arose from introspection. His vision unfolds in wool, cashmere, and alpaca, in shadows and light—intention made visible in silence.
Through Griffiths’ vision, the Max Mara woman stands in quiet opposition to speed. She invests in what endures—not for status, but for herself. Hers is outerwear that is both protection and architecture: intimacy framed in structure, and strength expressed through softness.