Brief Sunday Comparison: Max Mara Vs Marimekko

Many fashion designers and houses showcasing their collections in Milan went back to the '70s for inspiration. This was also the case with Max Mara. The brand actually looked also at its own history moving from a 1971 advertising campaign that featured Anjelica Huston at Milan's Grand Hotel.

Fashion-wise the reference proved very apt since Huston posed in the '70s for famous photographers like Richard Avedon and David Bailey and her elegant yet casual and at times rebellious attitude makes her a perfect source of inspiration.

Max Mara employed this reference mainly in the sophisticated silhouettes of the looks, in the blouses matched with calf-length and wrapover skirts accessorised with boots and floppy and soft cloche hats, in the ample double-breasted suit jackets, pinstripe linen pieces, piped blazers and crocheted patchwork cardigans.

Outwear remains the strength of the company and this was clear in the Alcantara pieces, while variation was provided by a series of designs in a stylised floral print.

The black on white/white on black micro-daisies looked maybe more like dots than floral motifs, but the flowery print in pink/rose/red or green/blue and mustard/brown created an abstract camouflage effect less hard than classic military camouflage and therefore more feminine.

Unfortunately, the prints called back Marimekko's most famous "Pieni Unikko" designs in their multiple colour combinations. The Marimekko effect was reinforced by the head-to-toe approach that successfully broke with the linearity of the collection, but that also made you think.

Though these prints may have a shorter shelf life and won't be as timeless as a Max Mara coat, they modernised the more classic pieces produced by the brand, yet you wonder why the company couldn't come up with a collection less stuck in the past and maybe develop a more innovative print.

The collection by Sportmax, the group's minor line, seemed fresher, more desirable (and therefore more saleable) and, above all, uncluttered by camouflage flower prints…