Somewhat of a regular visitor in the lead up to this show they\u2019ve \u201cbeen working up towards for a long time\u201d, Griffiths first stayed in Naples during the pandemic when Max Mara staged their Resort show on the island of Ischia<\/a>. \u201cIn the height of the pandemic, the hotels were closed, so we had to stay here instead. I fell in love with the city. We swore that one day we\u2019d come back and do a show properly \u2014 and here we are,\u201d he smiles. \u201cThere\u2019s something about Naples \u2014 the energy, the colour, the sound. It\u2019s a city of resilience. And I wanted to celebrate that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn the height of the pandemic, the hotels were closed, so we had to stay here instead. I fell in love with the city. We swore that one day we\u2019d come back and do a show properly \u2014 and here we are.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n La Reggia di Caserta just North of Naples \u2013 the largest Palace erected in Europe in the 18th century and now the most significant former Royal residence in the world at over 47,000 square meters, commonly referred to as \u2018a kind of swan song to baroque\u2019 \u2013 is the chosen setting for the collection Griffiths has named Venere Vesuviana<\/i>. With Gwyneth Paltrow<\/a> and Sharon Stone flying in to witness the moment, Griffiths admits he was not afraid to do something majestic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe setting is the most beautiful I could think of,\u201d he says casually. \u201cBut I had a decision to make: do I work with the setting, or do I work in contrast to it? To work with it would have meant elaborate ball gowns \u2014 and that\u2019s not Max Mara. So, I took the opposite path. The woman walking down those marble stairs will do so with complete nonchalance. She\u2019ll be dressed elegantly, informally. Her setting doesn\u2019t overpower her. She\u2019s not intimidated because she\u2019s confident. I\u2019m using the setting as a foil rather than camouflage.\u201d<\/p>\n In that spirit, the collection when it unfolds is strikingly contemporary. \u201cYou will see some very pronounced silhouettes,\u201d Griffiths promised. \u201cYou can\u2019t think about the fifties without big skirts \u2014 they go hand in hand. There are feminine necklines, decollet\u00e9, slightly off the shoulder looks. It\u2019s an un-fussy femininity, a woman who\u2019s getting on with her life, achieving what she wants, stopping at nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a confidence that came across in the casting, with models of the moment such as Achol Ayor, Angelina Kendall, Anna Robinson<\/a>, Ella McCutcheon, Ida Heiner, Awar Odhiang<\/a>, and Lennon Sorrenti moving through the marble halls with the composure of women who know their power. They wore a palette drawn from the city\u2019s natural poetry: ash and stone, chalk, sand, terracotta, smoke, sky blue, volcanic black. \u201cThere\u2019s a sensual pragmatism to it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe colours are grounded \u2014 not sweet or nostalgic \u2014 but full of life, like Naples itself.\u201d<\/p>\n While the collection was anything but retrospective, the looks carry the echo of cinema in their attitude, hardly surprising as Griffiths spent months at home in Reggio Emilia watching the films by directors Vittorio De Sica or Giuseppe De Santis that immortalised southern Italy.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent night after night watching and re-watching them. The strength that comes through \u2014 the naturalness of these women. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have hair and makeup departments in those days\u201d, he points out. \u201cVery often they did their own hair and makeup, sometimes even found their own clothes. They created their own image, and they were so strong,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cItalian fashion has always been about the woman, after the war, the women were the stars. They were working, rebuilding. They needed clothes that allowed them to live. That\u2019s the heritage I work with \u2014 clothes that give a woman the freedom to move through her life with ease and grace.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe woman walking down those marble stairs will do so with complete nonchalance. <\/span>She\u2019ll<\/span> be dressed elegantly, informally. Her setting <\/span>doesn\u2019t<\/span> overpower her. <\/span>She\u2019s<\/span> not intimidated because <\/span>she\u2019s<\/span> confident. <\/span>I\u2019m<\/span> using the setting as a foil rather than camouflage.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Especially Sophia Loren, who is synonymous with the Neapolitan capital. \u201cShe\u2019s not seen so much publicly now, but her spirit is everywhere. For me, that spirit sums up the time of the Italian Renaissance following the war \u2014 the moment Max Mara was born. We\u2019re talking about 1951. Those women were the ones who carried Italian style around the world. People talk about Italian fashion, but not French fashion as a collective idea \u2014 and that\u2019s because in Italy, fashion wasn\u2019t dominated by designers until the 1970s. It was shaped by brands like Max Mara \u2014 brands that simply gave women the clothes they needed to make themselves look and feel good. That\u2019s why Italian fashion was such a success. It was elegant, easy, often with a slightly sporty edge, and it allowed women to be the frame for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Griffiths found himself endlessly inspired by Loren\u2019s on-screen wardrobe. \u201cI watched\u202fYesterday, Today and Tomorrow<\/i>, where she\u2019s supposed to be pregnant, wearing a sack-like dress, and she looks fantastic. And then at a certain point, she’s cooking dinner for the kids. And this sequin jacket appears, and you never find out where it came from, why she’s wearing it. This black sequin jacket, and it’s this mysterious sense of Bella Figura: whatever your circumstance, you find a way of beg, stealing or borrowing something that makes you look and feel good, because you know that you can be successful when you feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/001_114-MAX-MARA.jpg\")
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