MFW: One in a Maximillian. Sleek Tailoring Reigns Supreme at Ferragamo

This is the third offering we have seen from English designer Maximillian Davis, and each time I haven’t been able to get my head around how this brilliance is birthed from a 27-year-old. Plucked young to take the reins at the established, albeit staid, house of Ferragamo, Davis made an assured debut just one year ago—and ever since, each offering has become more confident.

Staging his Spring/Summer 2024 runway atop an optical white carpet—a far cry from his SS23 debut in this city 12 months ago inside a sprawling, 17th-century courtyard—Davis drew on the, at times fraught, relationship between balance and tension—which perhaps was best communicated through the ease in which structured garments moved—and the familiarities between the spirit of Italian and Caribbean dress codes.

“I wanted things to feel a lot lighter, both in terms of fabric and construction but also in terms of how people want to dress,” Davis explained in the show notes. “There’s a familiarity I have found in the Italian way of dressing and living: an effortlessness which feels very Caribbean. The idea of doing everything at your own pace, on your own time.”

A black cape-sleeved power dress opened the show to many front row nods, before popping up again in a must-have Kelly green leather. Moulded spazzolato leather bodices were bonded onto viscose jersey drapery, and tailored suiting extended to skirts worn over the top of pants. Skivvied minis with bold leather belts, and flowing separates devoted to organic shapes filled the runway, alongside layered singlets and sleek outerwear. It was luxed-up casuals for the refined woman on the go.

A huge focus for Ferragamo is their shoes and bags. Notable mentions went to the rich sage green which extended from apparel into leather bags, the Frame bag now fringed with wooden beads, and the 3D printed banana cage heel which was inspired by the house’s Calypso heel of 1955.

“I wanted to find the codes that we explored in previous collections and reiterate them,” says Davis.

Twenty-seven. The mind boggles. But what a joy it is to watch him evolve.

This story first appeared on GRAZIA International.