Italian fashion has many facets, but its specialty remains the reinvention of the bourgeois wardrobe. At the Spring/Summer 2025 Women’s Fashion Week, from September 17 to 23, two brands outdid themselves in this category: Max Mara and Tod’s.
In Milan, Max Mara is a safe bet. Time passes and Ian Griffiths, who joined the house in 1987, has produced a series of effective collections for a clientele looking for a chic but not austere wardrobe. The 62-year-old Englishman always nourishes his work with references to literature, history, or even, this season, mathematics through the figure of Hypatia, a Neoplatonic philosopher from the 4th centurye century.
His erudition does not prevent him from designing very wearable clothes, which here play on geometric shapes. A long, tight knit dress is openwork on the hip, the cuffs of a white shirt that stick out from a chocolate jacket stand out from the silhouette like two immaculate rectangles, the complex drape of a dress draws a multitude of triangles on the bust… “I have memories, as a child, of my mother cutting out patterns on the living room table. She was doing geometry in space. Me too. But the goal, in the end, is that it doesn’t show: our customers don’t come to the store to buy a scientific experiment!”Ian Griffiths rightly notes.
Sky blue and sunflower yellow
For its part, Tod’s, famous for its spiked loafers, is building real fashion credibility. The brand created by Diego Della Valle in 1978 has been offering a wardrobe to accompany its flagship shoe for about fifteen years. But it is since the arrival of artistic director Matteo Tamburini, in December 2023, that this project has become truly convincing.
After a promising first collection in February, he confirmed the hopes placed in him with a wardrobe of precise cuts, bold and well-chosen colors. The 41-year-old Italian does not cite complex references when asked about his sources of inspiration: “An imaginary journey in the Mediterranean, which begins in Italy – synonymous with refinement, but also with sport, with cycling and sailing in particular – and ends in Greece.”
On the catwalk, a sky blue poplin tee-shirt is paired with loose navy linen pants; a leather pendant, a thick silver bracelet and a chocolate-coloured bag give these beautiful basics a unique look. An immaculate draped jacket, a long emerald pleated leather dress, a sunflower yellow hooded trench coat… Style, sometimes, is about little.