Show review in a sentence: Ian Griffiths brings Shanghai into Max Mara’s 75th anniversary celebrations with a retrospective for the books.
Designer: Ian Griffiths
Location: Shanghai’s Long Museum
Yes, those are three menswear looks by Ian Griffiths, presented on Max Mara’s Resort 2027 runway in Shanghai for the first time. Before the first model even stepped onto the catwalk, the question on everyone’s lips was: why Shanghai? And as the male models emerged, the timing itself prompted another: why now? Unlike past destination shows that drew a clearer line between place and collection, the choice felt less immediately legible for an Italian house marking its 75th anniversary. Max Mara’s answer lay in the idea of travel, a theme long tied to Achille Maramotti’s international ambitions.
The show coincided with The Max! at Shanghai’s Long Museum, a retrospective tracing the brand’s evolution from post-war Italian coat maker to global fashion force. From democratising luxury ready-to-wear in the 1950s to signatures like the 101801 coat by Anne-Marie Beretta in 1981 and the Teddy Bear coat, the archive unfolded like a dense visual timeline—at times more accumulative than distilled.
Together, exhibition and runway aimed to anchor a 75-year narrative, though the connection between the two felt loosely defined. On the runway, Griffiths stayed close to Max Mara’s established codes, adding selective nods to the host city: a knitted cheongsam silhouette, quilted silk jackets and pankou-fastened shirting sat alongside signature camel coats and tailoring. Graphic stripes, geometric patterning and restrained flashes of colour broke up the palette, with sequins used sparingly.
For a house known for clarity, the proposition here felt deliberately big, but not entirely resolved. In trying to hold archive, geography and celebration in one frame, the result raised more questions than answers: about what was being foregrounded and what was left unsaid.
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