Max Mara Goes Full Circle With An East-Meets-West Cruise 2025 Collection In Venice

The madness of Venice in June was in contrast to what was happening inside one of the spacious salas in the palatial hotel that Max Mara had transformed into a makeshift fitting room. Inside, last-minute decisions on styling and the like were to be made. Yet, Ian Griffiths, Max Mara’s creative director, was in his usual Zen mode, completely undeterred by not only the Italian summer heat but also the throngs of tourists crowding the grand canals of the Floating City. Citing Venice and its trading history as the collection’s inspiration, Griffiths closed a 40-year loop on this one, so to speak. It just so happened that Venice’s San Marco Basilica was also the main inspiration of his fashion college graduation collection many decades before.

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With its rich history, Venice has had close ties to worldly pursuits since the beginning. Situated at a strategic geographical Italian coast, Venice was one of the most important ports in Europe, welcoming visitors from all over the world. In fact, Marco Polo set sail from there in 1271 and made his rounds in Asia as an explorer extraordinaire before arriving back in Venice and retiring as a very wealthy merchant. Add to that the story of the Silk Road, which happened around the same period as Marco Polo’s journey, and that became the background story of Max Mara’s cruise 2025 collection.

“I started the collection in Istanbul,” shared Ian Griffiths in between the pre-show fittings. Tracing back Marco Polo’s Silk Road route proven to be the key point to this richly layered collection. Between the nods toward medieval sleeves and portrait necklines, some of the dresses shown in the collection were reminiscent of a Giovanni Bellini painting. The Eastern elements came through the many ‘arts decoratifs’ worked into the collection. From mosaic tile prints to the Devore technique, these handmade details made the collection even richer, in addition to the camel cashmere coats and dresses that came out in abundance—punctuated by the traffic-stopping headgear designed by the famous British milliner, Stephen Jones.

The richness of the textiles also worked as an homage to the marvel of Marco Polo’s luxury trading business, which in turn linked to Griffiths’ views on Max Mara’s business of fashion. We spoke to him on the morning of the show about his research process and the inspiration behind the collection.

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Hi Ian, nice to see you again. The last few times we spoke were in Max Mara’s home in Regio Emillia and in New York City, both for the cruise shows. We also met in Singapore, when you and your team visited us. But now, here we are in Venice. Thank you for giving me a sneak peek of the show. In fact, yesterday, Mrs. Lusuardi (Max Mara’s Fashion Coordinator) showed us some of the amazing coats that you’ll be showing tonight. They were so rich in texture and reminded me of Fortuny, whom I love.

Amazing. I mean, that’s why we came to Venice. Firstly, to us, Venice is the birthplace of the luxury business. How inspiring that the city is built on the basis of trade. Venice was the place where luxury goods were traded between the East and the West, and it was the basis of the Italian luxury trade today. And what Marco Polo did (back then) is the equivalent to what Max Mara has been doing; spreading influence around the globe and becoming a global power.

We’re also in Venice because of Venice itself. The magic [of the city] is evident in the architecture, the decor of the buildings and the fabrics—the visual and creative ways. They remind us all the time of this influence between the East and the West. But we should talk about the definition of luxury.

At Max Mara, we are not about producing superfluous objects. In fact, we are creating objects that are very useful, hardworking; suits, coats, dresses, whatever pieces that work hard for you to present your best self so that you can win that contract or charm everyone at the party. In that sense, these Max Mara ideas are not luxuries, they’re kind of essentials.

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So what’s your research process like?

It’s an awful lot. But I also visited other places, because, you know, to learn about Venice, you have to learn about the Silk Road. You have to go to other places to see where these influences came from. So I started out in Istanbul. I went there to see the Islamic implants, to understand more about the Islamic decor. There are lots of beautiful and rich patterns. Then I came back to Venice and rediscovered examples of where that Islamic influenced the architecture and the design, and how it was fused with more Western-type decorative arts. And I came here a lot over the past winter to just walk around. Sometimes I went to specific places and looked at specific things or archives. I also pulled up my own sketchbooks because I remembered that for my final project at Manchester Polytechnic, I’d become obsessed with gloomy Italian churches and monuments. My final year project was inspired by San Marco Basilica.

Mine too. Venice and San Marco Basilica were the genesis of my final year project in fashion design school. That’s where I discovered Mariano Fortuny and the Eastern influence in his work in the early 1900s. So when Mrs. Lusuardi showed us the Devore coat yesterday, I was blown away.

Yes, oh, I went to all those places too. I pulled up my sketchbook from 40 years ago and amazingly, I still have the original garments that I made. They were all intact, even the paper pattern. So we were able to reproduce all the prints and reproduce the garments. They are going to be the final four looks at the show tonight.

I can’t wait to see the whole collection. Good luck, Ian.

Thank you.

Styling: Kai Margrander
Model: Valeria Buldini/Elite Milano
Makeup: Valentina Giro
Hair: Sauro Sartorel, Tiziana Simonetti
Casting: Anna Koziakova
Production: A Consulting Venice and Francesca Noia

In collaboration with Max Mara.