Forget skinny Parisian chic – here’s why I’m embracing Italian style
telegraph.co.ukMax Mara for almost three decades (Italians like continuity, even if that isn’t always reflected in their politics). Since he divides his time between the two countries, Griffith is well placed as an objective observer of a society that loves a sense of luxury but also ease and easy colours, although they don’t faint if they see brights.
To this end, this season he drizzled clementine orange and yellow among the cappuccino and panna cotta shades and pulled off the happy Italian trick of designing cosy, androgynous clothes that still threw some feminine curves and gauzy fabrics into the mix.
Fuzzy, muted outlines over hard lines and sharp angles. These are another feature of Milanese style. There’s also a strong appreciation of artsy prints and striking jewellery here, a sensibility that Colville, the label founded by former British Vogue fashion director Lucinda Chambers and Milan-based Molly Molloy, taps into.For a country that has produced so many global brands, they’re notably interested in local artisanal labels, hence their flourishing streets of small, specialist shops, from lingerie and lace to stationery and glassware.
We should probably differentiate between Northern Italian style (Milanese in shorthand) and Southern, which tends to be blingy and va va voom.
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