Walk in and you understand immediately that this space was designed around the clothes and the women who wear them. Airy, welcoming, the kind of interior that makes you want to feel every piece. To celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary, Max Mara has entrusted the reinvention of its Avenue Montaigne flagship to Sophie Hicks, an architect who designed stores for some of the most exacting Houses in fashion, among them Alaïa, Acne Studios, Paul Smith… and Max Mara.
Seven hundred and forty-five square metres where iconic coats hang alongside evening dresses, the everyday and the rare sharing the same unhurried air.
You move through the ground floor drawn forward by the openness of it, and then you turn around. To your right, a staircase has been rising all along. It climbs in a double orange twist, and seen from a few steps back its full architectural ambition becomes legible.
Upstairs, a row of windows runs the length of the room. The light does justice to cashmere and silk. At one end, a linen screen shifts with live weather transmitted from Reggio Emilia, where Max Mara has made its coats since the house was founded. At the other end, the Eiffel Tower.
To celebrate the flagship’s reopening, numerous fashion personalities attended, including model Laetitia Casta, fashion historian and performer Olivier Saillard, and actress Karidja Touré.
Seventy-five years in, the House still knows exactly what it is making and for whom.
