BY JAY AQUINO

JUNE 17, 2026

For its 75th anniversary, Max Mara could have staged a stately retrospective and allowed the camel coat to do the talking. Instead, the house arrived at Shanghai’s Long Museum with Resort 2027, a collection titled Kinetic Chic. Presented alongside The Max!, an exhibition of archival garments, sketches and fabrics curated by Olivier Saillard, the show moved through the brand’s past while looking forward. Max Mara framed the city as the ideal expression of their metropolitan identity, fast, sophisticated and resistant to a purely Western idea of modern dress. 

Mandarin collars, asymmetric fronts, pankou-style knots and the lean line of the cheongsam appeared across dresses and tailoring, translated into Max Mara’s clean, architectural language. An ivory midi dress, cut close to the body and opened with a high side slit, captured that balance particularly well. An ivory trouser suit used traditional knotted fastenings on a collarless wrap jacket, turning a recognisable cultural code into something modern and practical.

IMAGE SOURCE: WWD / MAX MARA

A cobalt cocoon coat reduced outerwear to colour and volume; a short black cape coat made rounded proportions feel urban. Crimson appeared across a plush floor-length coat, sequinned eveningwear and asymmetric tailoring to create drama. Striped knits, houndstooth, circular motifs and oversized bow belts brought graphic energy to the collection, while sequins transformed trenches and utility overalls into evening pieces. The palette shifted from ivory, olive, tobacco and camel to cobalt, mustard and red, with saturated colour giving the collection greater intensity.

Then came the menswear, which not only complemented the women’s looks but also suggested a genuine commercial future beyond womenswear. A relaxed ivory double-breasted suit, worn shirtless beneath a sweeping crimson coat, gave the brand’s formal language a sensual ease. The tonal camel suit was even stronger, with extended shoulders, a shaped waist and wide trousers creating an elongated silhouette that felt powerful without looking like officewear. A camel overcoat over a black tank and extremely wide trousers distilled the collection’s best instincts into one metropolitan and gender-fluid look. There is clear commercial potential in how Max Mara’s signature coats, fluid trousers, soft tailoring and luxurious neutral colours translate naturally to menswear for the uptownman who simply wants to look well put together.

Resort 2027 ultimately treated heritage as a living system rather than a museum piece. Its Chinese references, Bauhaus geometry, tactile glamour and emerging menswear vocabulary all served the same idea that Max Mara’s archive remains valuable only when it continues to evolve.

IMAGE SOURCE: WWD / MAX MARA

IMAGE SOURCE: WWD / MAX MARA

 IMAGE SOURCE: WWD / MAX MARA

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