Max Mara 75th anniversary opened in Shanghai with an archive exhibition called “The Max!” and the brand’s 2027 early spring collection, the company said.
The Max! exhibition and the runway presentation took place at Shanghai’s Long Museum, in the building with the vaulted dome that hosts major contemporary art shows. The exhibition was open to the public June 17 to June 28, Max Mara said, and it was curated by Olivier Saillard.
Max Mara 75th anniversary archive and living collection
Max Mara framed The Max! as more than a historical display, describing the show as a cultural inventory of contemporary female power that connects the brand’s Italian tailoring with the intellect and independence of modern women. According to the brand, the presentation combined rare archive pieces, garments, fabrics, manuscripts, documents and photographs pulled from storage boxes to tell the stories behind the clothes.
Max Mara highlighted the BAI corporate library in Reggio Emilia, which it said was founded in 2003 to collect, organize and preserve the house’s historical records. The brand called the archive a living archive, devoted to sharing knowledge and engaging with contemporary practice, and said the show recreated the daily energy of BAI’s working collections.
Max Mara traced that lineage to its beginnings, when founder Achille Maramotti and his mother Giulia Fontanesi Maramotti brought together top students from their tailoring school to create the first short coat. The brand said the company has long combined traditional tailoring craft with industrial efficiency to produce clothing that serves each generation of women.
Exhibition design and chapters
The show was organized into nine chapters that mapped the house’s craft and pioneering spirit, Max Mara said. Clothing, documents, textiles, photographic files and design furniture were interwoven, and the space referenced an open storage museum model to present the collection in a flexible, lively way.
French artist Aurore de la Morinerie produced the exhibition’s main visual in a signature minimalist style that nods to Max Mara’s first advertisement featuring a red coat, the brand said. The curatorial approach aimed to reveal continuity across generations of style, and to honor tailoring as a ceremonial craft.
Max Mara 75th anniversary limited edition coats
To mark the Max Mara 75th anniversary, the brand released three numbered limited edition reissues of archival coats, the company said. The three pieces are named Meridian, Millenia and Metric, and each style is limited to 200 numbered examples, complete with a label and reproductions of the original sketches.
Max Mara said the reissues respect original proportions and silhouettes while using the house’s evolved production techniques to produce lighter weight fabric and refined construction. The release was presented as an extension of the brand’s living archive, designed to open historical knowledge to a contemporary audience.
KINETIC CHIC 2027 early spring collection
Under the Long Museum dome, Max Mara presented its 2027 early spring collection titled KINETIC CHIC to celebrate the Max Mara 75th anniversary and to assert a forward looking vision. The brand described the show as a declaration that honors continuous heritage while imagining new possibilities for living wardrobes.
The collection revisits the brand’s archive and reinterprets classic elements to answer the question Max Mara posed in the show, what is Max Mara. The house continued to reference Bauhaus principles, using utility and cohesion to shape clothes that the brand said are meant to ease daily life and empower wearers.
Color and graphic motifs from the archive returned in new compositions: stripes and cubic geometry enlivened the palette of camel, cognac, khaki, champagne, black, white and the house red. The designs also introduced high saturation hues and sequined details in unexpected placements, for example at the back of a pared back knit.
Silhouettes were tuned to clarity and rhythm. Coats carried a relaxed authority; suits appeared as either cropped boxy shapes or sharply tailored jackets; skirts ranged from gently voluminous knee length to tapered over the knee; straight front trousers showed a flat plane and side patch pockets that revealed the ankle and paired with ankle strapped heels.
For the Max Mara 75th anniversary events, the brand invited a range of international guests to attend the show and openings, the company said. Notable names on the guest list included Michelle Yeoh, Eileen Gu, Ming Xi, Liu Yu, Zhang Kangle, Maude Apatow and Katie Holmes, and the gatherings reflected both film and fashion circles.
Max Mara pointed to the recurring question at the heart of the event, how fashion can remain contemporary while staying timeless. The brand argued that continuity comes from design logic and an enduring appeal that is born in real life, and that has been loved by generations of women.
As Max Mara celebrates its 75th anniversary, the company said it intends the archive and the limited reissues to continue a conversation between past and present. The Max! and the KINETIC CHIC collection together were presented as an argument for a brand language that serves independent living, and that invites each wearer to define her own role.
For more details on exhibition hours and the limited edition coats, Max Mara directed readers to its official channels and archive resources. The Max Mara 75th anniversary program is part of a year of activities the house said will continue to explore the relationship between craft, archive and lived experience.
