Luxury house MAX MARA unveiled its Fall Winter 2023 Collection, that celebrates French mathematician, physicist, and author Émilie du Châtelet (1706 – 1749), on February 23rd, during the ongoing Milan Fashion Week. The collection titled The Camelocracy looks for modern influences in the turbulent eighteenth century. Madame du Châtelet was the free spirited Marquise, who explored the issues of the age: The education and social role of women, the afterlife, and human happiness. Émilie frequently disguised herself as a man, that was the only way for her to get into the male only coffee houses to discuss news and ideas. For the season, creative director Ian Griffiths was inspired by a cast of costumed characters: The gentleman with a soft swagger of an overcoat, the neat notary, hair tied with a black ribbon, the debonair officer with a cape or a coat worn rakishly on one shoulder, an imperious duke with a grand cloak worn a la mode. The collection fuses reason and order with a dash of romance.
FALL WINTER 2023.24 WOMENSWEAR COLLECTIONS
“Fashion in the Age of Reason bore the apotropaic traces of a darker time; voluminous drapery, feathers, horsehair, whalebone, ritualistic face paint and towering wigs. Voltaire tells us that Émilie hated superstition and necromancy: in Max Mara’s narrative, Émilie spurns the convoluted and restrictive styles of the day. Science raises the curtain on a wardrobe for the now. The rich brocade fabrics, the side-hoops, bustier and chemises are executed with sharp Newtonian precision and paired with minimalistic turtlenecks and chunky boots. Pannier skirts, above the knee, or ankle length, feature anachronistic drawstrings and sporty pockets. Straight from the future, a fishtail parka in camel colour reverses to an opulent damask. The Watteau back, a characteristic of contemporary court dresses, is grafted onto a military greatcoat and a snappy little cocktail dress.” – from Max Mara
