Back to the Future: When The Romance of St. Petersburg Collided With Max Mara
With the opulence, magic and history of Russian aristocracy woven into the Italian fashion house’s Resort 2021 collection, creative Director Ian Griffiths reflects on the design love story that very nearly became a tragedy…
“The runway show would have progressed from the ballroom of the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg and through the galleries that once housed the Rembrandts and old masters. The audience would have been seated on chairs covered in dust sheets, evoking the moment when the Yusupovs fled Russia and went on to a new life.” This dreamy description of opulence and drama is that of the Max Mara Resort 2021 show that never was. The passionate words are those of Creative Director Ian Griffiths, as he imagines the theatrics of what would have been one of the brand’s most extravagant runways. But it wasn’t to be.
The show, and all its grandeur, was yet another casualty of Covid-19, and the subsequent lockdowns and social-distancing measures that ensued across the globe. With the team separated by travel restrictions and time zones, serious doubts began to arise around the logistics of producing the clothes.“All sorts of dramatic scenarios occurred, and the collection not being produced was a real possibility,” reveals Ian, who was in lockdown in the UK from March until June. “Italy had practically closed down, the factories had all shut. If you think about the chain that goes from the finished product backwards: the garment being made, the fabric being made before that, even the yarn has to be made and dyed – there was a time that I didn’t think it would happen.”
Although, the show could not go on, thankfully, the collection was completed as a result of the hard work and swift organisation of the Italian textile industry, meaning the inspiration and story of Russian aristocracy during La Belle Époque, and indeed the magical architecture of St. Petersburg, found a place to live on through the clothes themselves. So what sparked this intrigue with Prince Felix Yusupov, Princess Irina of Russia, and the palace and city where they lived the most indulgent portion of their lives? “I ran through my head a list of places that I’ve always been in love with, that to my mind evoke the idea of romance,” remembers Ian. “The place that was top of my list was St. Petersburg, which is a city that I’ve always dreamt about since I was at school.”
Having never visited the city, Ian, who joined Max Mara straight after university in 1987, took time to research the place and indeed his muses before venturing out. “The first trip I made there was last autumn, and the purpose was to check whether the city was what I imagined it would be,” he explains. “It exceeded my expectations, my image of St. Petersburg was built up through Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, and when I got there I felt like I was on the set of a BBC adaptation of War and Peace; it totally lives up to everything you expect of it.”
And while on this first visit, Ian began to explore an alliance between the history of the city and the modernity of the brand. “What I discovered was a combination of rigorous neoclassical structures and poetry that perfectly equated to my idea of the pulled-together, chic, rational Max Mara woman, and the romance that beats in her heart,” he explains. These two opposite contrasts lead me to title the collection Reason and Romance, as if it were the title of a 19th-century Russian novel. It gave me something concrete to work with, because I had the idea that I would like to contrast Max Mara’s quite strict tailoring and structured outerwear with something softer and grander underneath, something that was inspired by historical costume.”
And these costumes, which were worn at some of the most majestic balls and ceremonies in Russia during the late 19th century, became available to Ian, when he gained access to the archive collection at the city’s State Hermitage Museum. “When I discovered that the clothes that I had seen in photographs of grand balls at the Yusupov Palace were at the Hermitage, I had to see them,” says Ian. “I was so excited. As a designer, I have such a respect for history and the preservation of artefacts from the past. To actually touch and hold these costumes was a moving and emotional experience, those dresses and ceremonial costumes gave me something material to work with that was real inspiration for the decorative pieces that complete the collection. It gave the collection an added dimension of authenticity.”
And the visit to the archive became a two-way transaction. “It was a doubly moving experience because the Hermitage accepted two Max Mara coats into their collections, the 101 801 – our all-time icon, and our new icon: the Teddy Bear coat. So, that archive now contains something that I have actually designed and worked upon,” reveals Ian, who is delighted that his clothes are making history. “I think that whatever we do, we all need to be aware of where we came from, in order to know where we’re going. A knowledge of history is vital to having some kind of direction, if only to know where not to go, and what mistakes not to make.”
And as the theme of our December issue is reflection, we asked Ian to think back to where he came from, to the new wave-loving punk, growing up in the north of England, frequenting the famous Haçienda nightclub in Manchester. “That young Haçienda-loving Ian didn’tthink he had much of a future to be honest. I very much lived for the moment, I didn’t think the world had much of a place for a person like me,” he remembers. “I felt like a misfit. It was that post-punk, new-wave period, we all felt like the establishment world didn’t really want us.” And what advice would he give that younger Ian? “I think my message to that self would be: ‘just stay strong, stay true to yourself and your ideas and your creativity – because one day there will be a place for you. Don’t lose that spark,’ and I feel like I’ve managed to keep that spark alive inside me all those years. I would say to the young kid: never give up.” And Ian laughs as he thinks about what that younger Ian might say back to him now: “He would have said: don’t stop fighting, never stop fighting!”
And fighting is what Ian and the Max Mara team have had to do to bring this resort collection to fruition, the result being a beautiful mix of past meets future, where the straight lines of cashmere tunics complement romantic handkerchief-hemmed skirts, tailored suits in the neutral tones of caramel and taupe stand aside ornate embroideries and floral tapestry-inspired prints, and the modernity of the iconic Max Mara Teddy Bear coat contrasts with an array of diaphanous, drop-waisted dresses reminiscent of the 1920s. An old world merges with a new, and minus a few sleeveless tunics, the collection embraces the modest aesthetic of the Middle Eastern woman.
“I thought about the whole idea around modesty a lot, especially since we started working with models like Halima,” says Ian of Halima Aden, who first walked for the brand in February 2017, making Max Mara’s the first Milan show to feature a headscarf-wearing model. “What I realised is that it’s not just women in the Middle East who are looking to dress modestly, in most areas of the the world, most women would prefer, in most situations, to be a bit more covered up. If you take the issue of sleeves, most women would prefer to wear sleeves most of the time. I keep the issue of respect for women at the front of my mind all the time when I’m designing, it leads me to design collections where most items would work for Muslim women or women in the Middle East who need to dress modestly, it’s part of our philosophy.”
And with the pandemic forcing us all to slow down, it has afforded Ian and the brand to take the time to reflect on the philosophies of the brand as a whole. “It’s absolutely been a time of reflection,’ he muses. “I had just returned from St. Petersburg and we went straight into lockdown, and once I got over the initial disappointment of having to cancel the show, I had a lot of time to reflect on what we’re doing, what we’re about and what we’re aiming to do. What I learned was to let go a little bit, letting fate take control. Every day, I would work away not knowing if it would lead to a real collection ever being produced and that made me think about the joy of actually just doing the work rather than aiming towards a result, taking real pleasure in just working, sketching, doing fittings by video, letting go a little bit and realising that you can’t control every outcome.”
So will there be long-term changes for Max Mara? “I think there isn’t going to be a normal, at least for the next few years, or ever, so we are applying to be flexible, plan as much as we can but always allow for something unexpected to happen, which can actually make the whole process more enjoyable,” says Ian. “I think I took the problems that we had with this collection as a stimulus, it’s a designers job to design outside design parameters, I take the difficult situation that we’re all living in as being a stimulus to be more creative, and do better collections.”
And it seems the resort collection itself will leave a stamp on the Max Mara legacy. “We’ve awoken this sense of poetry in ourselves and hopefully in the women who wear Max Mara, and on reflection that’s given me a whole new source of creativity for the future, and having explored this element of poetry, I don’t think we’re going to just put that back in it’s box. That’s always going to stay with us,” explains Ian. “On reflection, that’s one thing I’ve learned, to put more romance and poetry into the clothes that we design, I think the world isn’t as easy as it was, and one thing that we are going to need from our clothes is a kind of emotional and psychological support, and if they can give us some sort of poetry, then putting on that coat, or that dress, helps us be strong for the day or evening ahead.”
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s December 2020 issue