Max Mara, autumn-winter 2023 collection

Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths often brings to mind strong women in his collections. In the fall-winter 2023 season, he wanted to talk about Emilie du Chatelet. She is often credited as Voltaire’s lover, but Emily was also a man of science, studying mathematics and physics and translating Newton’s Principia Mathematica. In the collection, references to De Chatelet are figurative, echoing the fashion of her time. There are corsets, but they are either leather or padded. The voluminous pannier skirts that might have been worn in the 18th century, but are now short and with big pockets. Several suits with modern silhouettes are made of rich brocade. In the outerwear category, the key for Max Mara is loose-fitting coats and floor-length parkas, puffer jackets and pastel shearling coats.