The Italian house draws on Amelia Earhart and fellow trailblazing women, reworking the safari jacket through a lens of pragmatic glamour.
Max Mara presented its spring/summer 2027 collection in Milan today, looking to the 1930s and the women who defined the era's spirit of adventure. The heritage outerwear brand found inspiration in aviators Amelia Earhart and Beryl Markham, wildlife photographer Osa Johnson, explorer Freya Stark, and cross-continental driver Eva Dickson—women who favored sleek, practical tailoring, leather belts, aviator sunglasses, and neutral dressing that emphasized utility over ornament.
The safari jacket anchored the entire collection. Creative director Ian Griffiths reworked the silhouette into longer duster coats and shorter belted versions, then translated it into casual shirting worn over white tank tops with chocolate brown leather culottes and suede boots. He interrupted the neutral palette with lustrous gabardine, while open linen safari jackets over matching slacks and shirting—again with the white top visible underneath—offered a warm-weather take on vintage-inspired suiting.
The house deconstructed safari elements throughout. Functional pleated pockets appeared on draped knee-length dresses. Oversize white safari tops with deep V-necks were tucked into matching column midi dresses and cinched with thick black leather belts. Midway through, Griffiths pushed further into experimentation: a safari jacket became an oversize vest over a bodysuit with sheer organza trousers, and bra tops—the season's dominant trend, heavily featured at Prada and Khaite—peeked out from beneath impeccably tailored open blazers with culottes.
Bodycon slip dresses with spaghetti straps nodded to '90s dressing, though the reference stretched back further. Before Kate Moss, Ginger Rogers wore sparkling slip dresses in early Hollywood films. Halter tops and apron dresses carried a similar minimalist glamour.
The collection unfolded as layered tailoring in restrained tones, filtered through 1930s sensibilities. Show notes cited "corporate armor" and "tactical" structure—language that resonated against a backdrop of global power tensions, economic disruption, and political polarization echoing that earlier decade. Yet the proposition remained that fantasy lives within classic wardrobe foundations. An iconic safari jacket and precise tailoring, the collection suggested, can still open doors to escape.