Resounding with the influence of Italy's legendary avant-garde artists, Ian Griffiths' collection was rife with surprising textures and refreshingly redesigned coats.

Fashion is perpetually entwined in a waltz with art. Perhaps&nbsp;the designer who is most attuned to that dance at the moment is Raf Simons, whose plethora of <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/calvin-klein-the-andy-warhol-foundation-partnership">art-inspired creations&nbsp;for Calvin Klein</a> now counts yet another <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/calvin-klein-jeans-andy-warhol-self-portraits-capsule-collection-t-shirts-hoodies-jeans-bags">Warhol-printed collection</a>. A worthy contender would be Gucci&#39;s Alessandro Michele, whose artistic&nbsp;collaborations have spawned <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/gucci-launches-chinese-new-year-dog-themed-collection-2018-unskilled-worker">several</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/gucci-launches-capsule-collection-with-spanish-artist-coco-capitan-tshirts-sweatshirts-bags">Instagram-worthy</a> <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/gucci-launches-new-limited-edition-guccihallucination-capsule-collection-online">collections</a>, or Dior&#39;s Maria Grazia Chiuri, whose creative approach involves referencing the works of <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/dior-spring-summer-2018-runway-collection-paris-fashion-week">female</a> <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/jennifer-lawrence-goes-androgynous-for-dior-fall-2018-campaign">artists</a>.&nbsp;With his Resort 2019 collection for Max Mara, creative director Ian Griffiths&nbsp;officially put on his dancing shoes and swayed to a similar rhythm.&nbsp;

The collection was an homage to Max Mara's art-collecting founder.

Griffiths chose to hold the show&nbsp;at the Collezione Maramotti in&nbsp;Reggio Emilia,&nbsp;the building that served as Max Mara&#39;s&nbsp;first headquarters and now houses founder&nbsp;Achille Maramotti&#39;s private&nbsp;art collection.&nbsp;As a tribute to Maramotti, Griffiths&#39; collection was inspired by the artworks&nbsp;in the gallery, which&nbsp;boasts a roster of avant-garde Italian artists&nbsp;such as Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri and&nbsp;Giovanni Anselmo. The result was a&nbsp;range of elegant coats and eveningwear pieces that echoed with a&nbsp;distinctive artistic influence,&nbsp;starting with the colours.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Throughout the collection, the neutral tones&nbsp;of&nbsp;white, grey and black&nbsp;mingled with the chalky hues of&nbsp;Pietro Novelli&#39;s Baroque paintings, including&nbsp;ultramarine, viridian and lemon. Some tailored suits even came in the shade of raw canvas. Other than nodding&nbsp;to&nbsp;the collection&#39;s influences, the muted colours&nbsp;also served another purpose: to highlight the thoughtful design details of the clothes.

The garments had a painter's palette.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Patchworks, plaits, sculptural ruches, twists, knots&nbsp;&mdash; the whole works were on display on this season&#39;s pants, bodices and blouses. They weren&#39;t random either; the intricate details of the collection were pulled straight from the textured works of Burri and Anselmo, attesting to Griffiths&#39; observant&nbsp;eye for detail.

Texture was everything...

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

You couldn&#39;t miss them; almost every other model was lugging one of the collection&#39;s&nbsp;crinkly pliss&eacute; leather bags in their arms as&nbsp;they walked down the runway. Griffiths has Piero Manzoni&#39;s&nbsp;Achrome artwork series to thank for the unusual texture of the bags, which in our opinion make&nbsp;for&nbsp;some of this season&#39;s most distinctive offerings yet.

... especially for the bags.

Scripts were stripped of their meaning and used to decorate dresses, sweaters pants, resulting in a sort of antithesis to the logos that currently pervade the runways.&nbsp;By taking cues from the works of Cy&nbsp;Twombly and&nbsp;Jannis Kounellis, Griffiths created an&nbsp;array of calligraphic prints that stand&nbsp;out against the otherwise bare-surfaced collection.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Max Mara has always been known for its exquisite outerwear, and this season was no different. There&nbsp;were reversible coats &mdash;&nbsp;cashmere on one side, textured nylon on the other &mdash; and masculine overcoats made of silk organza, but the most noteworthy of all were Griffith&#39;s reworkings&nbsp;of the brand&#39;s signature garment, the <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/inside-max-mara-coats!-2017-exhibition-in-seoul-dongdaemun-design-plaza">camel coat</a>. Presented in a black version for the opening look and a white one for the closing look, Griffiths&#39; update to the&nbsp;101801 coat featured sliced sleeves, allowing it to be worn as an elegant cape&nbsp;instead.

Max Mara Resort 2019: An Artistic Tribute

Tags

Recommended posts for you

Living

lululemon Takes You FURTHER, Transforming the Impossible to the Possible

Culture

Rapper, ZICO Teases New Single in Collaboration with BLACKPINK's Jennie

Fashion

Take a Chic Trip to Saint Tropez with Longchamp Latest Collaboration

Fashion

Inside the Louis Vuitton Women's Pre-Fall 2024 show in Shanghai

Culture

Everything to Know About Taylor Swift's New Album 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Fashion

Dior's Fall 2024 Collection Pays Homage to New York City

Fashion

Watch the Louis Vuitton Women’s Voyager Show Live From Shanghai

Culture

ASTRO's Cha Eun-woo Woos Fans at His First Fan-Concert in Singapore