If Marilyn Monroe were alive today, she would look stunning in a teddy bear wrap coat by Max Mara—or so Ian Griffith thinks. “We share the same MM initials,” he said on a pre-fall date. “But there’s also a symmetry between a sex symbol like her, eager to outshine her sex bomb image, and the wise Max Mara woman who sometimes wants to let go of her wiser side.”
Griffith focuses on the year Monroe spent in New York, away from the Hollywood studios, when she aspired to blend into the city’s intellectual and creative milieu. That time in her life was the subject of Elizabeth Winder’s Marilyn in Manhattan: Her Year of Joy , the book that inspired Griffith A collection he calls Iconoclassics. “Of course the nickname is overused, but I really believe Marilyn deserves it,” he said, noting that her cultural significance is still so strong that even young people are drawn to her.
Cue this season’s curvaceous denim paired with soft makeup, workwear-inspired mechanic cargo pants and men’s paper bag waist carpentry pants in chic Lazimir or Duchess satin . The Teddy Bear Coat, now available for years, comes in a new raspberry shade that references Marilyn’s favorite makeup shade. Lipstick, nail polish and mascara are printed on slouchy silk pajamas, which she might casually wear under Max Mara’s signature camel coat. “This collection is really about icons on icons,” jokes Griffith.
To this end, he reedited two early examples of the Max Mara coat, which graced the cover of the forward-thinking Italian magazine in 1961 Arianna. A neat camel cashmere belted wrap style is perfect for Marilyn’s everyday wardrobe. She is famously photographed in the New York subway in a beige coat. “I don’t want to stress about the red carpet choices,” Griffith explains. “Just something she would wear to hang out with her artistic friends.”
For Marilyn, however, a little glamor was inevitable, so a piece A body-hugging drape dress in champagne-coloured taffeta, and a curvaceous black number in a technical knit and a sexy slip dress with sequins under layers of georgette were also pictured. If Griffith wanted to prove that Max Mara is a brand imbued with iconic connotations, regardless of the moniker’s overused status, he’d hit the mark.
