There’s a particular quiet in Milan in the early afternoon, the kind of light that spills through tall windows and pools in unexpected corners as locals retreat for their daily riposo. It makes those left wandering notice the smallest details: the curve of a staircase, the texture of a marble floor, the way shadows shift with movement. For Ian Griffiths, that kind of observation is everything, as it is in these small, deliberate moments where power quietly announces itself.
When we think of power, it’s often a matter of presence—an energy that demands attention without needing to shout. It’s in the choices that mark individuality in a world built on conformity, in the way a figure carries themselves with certainty, or lingers in a room long after leaving it.
At Max Mara this Spring/Summer 2026 season, that subtle authority became fashion. Inspired by Madame de Pompadour, the ultimate self-made woman of 18th-century France, Griffiths translated elegance and influence into clothes defined by lightness, control, and whimsy. Her world of art, intellect, and playful subversion echoed across the runway. Organza petals, cropped trenches, and cinched elastics moved with the body, unfolding a dialogue between centuries of style that felt entirely contemporary.
The Palazzo del Ghiaccio felt like a stage set for a delicate ballet: sunlight streaming in, shadows tracing the contours of each garment, allowing fabrics to unfold in their own quiet choreography. There was rhythm in the minimalism, drama in the details: pleated coronas unfurled at shoulders, ruffled skirts rose like vaporous crests from taut pencil skirts, and delicate chiffon and mesh swirled around cropped knits.
What Griffiths achieved was a modern Rococo: elegance tempered by practicality. Skirts and tops shifted with the body, straps and elastics reframed traditional structures, and cropped jackets hovered somewhere between rehearsal-room ballet and boardroom precision. The effect was both sensual and cerebral.
Colour was subtle, almost ghostly in places—camels, beiges, and muted neutrals—but punctuated with gentle exclamations: pastel and floral undersea prints broke through the serene palette. Accessories were deliberate and minimal: black harness belts, shoes, and handbags grounding the fluidity of the silhouettes.
The collection’s narrative unfolded in contrasts: discipline versus flourish, strength versus levity, austerity versus eroticism. As light shifted and shadows played across the folds of fabric and the curves of shoulders, there was a sense of deliberation in every movement. It wasn’t loud or performative, but precise—moments that seemed to measure themselves in quiet authority, in the way elegance can both invite and command attention.
There is a rare clarity in these observations, a recognition that influence can be whispered rather than proclaimed. In these pauses, in the spaces between motion and stillness, one sees how confidence quietly asserts itself. And for anyone who pauses long enough to notice, the impression lingers well beyond the eye’s first glance.
See all the highlights from Max Mara’s SS26 show below.
