Max Mara

Max Mara is the best-known name of a number of lines produced by the Maramotti family which include Sportmax, Weekend (lower priced with less expensive fabrics), I Blues (separates), Penny Black and Marella (lower priced), Pianoforte (evening clothes), Max and Co, and Marina Rinaldi (for larger sized women). It is one of the largest if not the largest manufacturers of women's clothes in Italy. (An article in the International Herald Tribune dated February 27, 1990, gave the figures of 16 different labels, 300 stores, and a turnover in 1989 at wholesale prices of 544 million dollars.) By 2002, according to Italian financial newspaper Il Sole-24 Ore, there were 1,240 shops in 90 countries with 43 percent of the production exported. Sales in 2001 came to over one billion Euro, with a net profit of over 100 million Euro. Over 3,600 people work to produce the more than 40 brands sold.

Please indulge me if I insert a personal note here - many years ago, actually in the early sixties, I happened to be taken on a visit to the Ferrari factory in Maranello by an industrialist who wanted to check the progress of the Ferrari he had ordered. After lunch and a visit to the car and to Ing. Enzo Ferrari, one of the group took us to visit his dress factory in Reggio Emilia. The gentleman's name was Achille Maramotti. He was especially interested in what I, the American visitor, thought of his product. As tactfully as possible I told him that while his clothes appeared to be very well made, I thought they could do with a bit more style, and perhaps he needed to hire a new designer. Little did I imagine that when I returned to live in Italy I would see Max Mara become one of the powerhouses in Italian fashion!

I doubt I had anything to do with it, but those who have worked on Max Mara collections include Karl Lagerfeld, Luciano Soprani, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Narciso Rodriguez, Dolce & Gabbana, and Emanuelle Khanh. In 1990 Maramotti listed six reasons for the company's success to the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes: "...quality of the fabric and offering the consumer a garment at a price in tune with the market, ability to develop new dlines and new companies rather than sticking to a rigid framework, the youth of a company where the average age is under 30, production knowhow...mixing technology and traditional craftsmanship, listening to customer feedback.... and design creativity."

Today the company founded in 1951 is run by son and chairman Luigi Maramotti, 46. The Max Mara classic style is consistent, thanks to design director Laura Lusuardi who has been with the company for many years. In 2001 Maramotti, in a rare interview, told Harper's Bazaar: "What's next is clothes that live longer. It might seem antique. But it's also modern. In the market, the idea is for everyone to throw everything away each season. But I'm interested in making good design and things that last."

Maramotti's brother Ignazio and sister Maria Ludovica also work for the company.

The Max Mara winter coats are a lynchpin in many women's wardrobes, made of the finest wools including cashmere blends and pure cashmere, usually in classic cuts, but with enough variations each season to keep them up-to-date.

Although Maramotti's father has had his differences with the prickly Italian unions the factory is considered to be a good work environment and the Parmesan cheese in the company cafè is made with milk from the family's cows, and there is a fashion archive available to any worker who wishes to consult it. Achille Maramotti's first contact with fabric and fashion came through his grandmother, a tailor, and his mother's dressmaking school, where students paid for their lessons with the work they produced. Grandmother Marina Rinaldi gave her name to the company's oversize line. Through the years Maramotti, who has a law degree from the University of Rome, also indulged his passions by compiling a collection of contemporary art and publishing and giving away a poetry magazine. "Fashion is never in crisis because clothes are always necessary," he told a reporter in 1994.

Clients include former model and actress Andie McDowell, socialite Cornelia Guest, Liv Tyler, Vanessa Redgrave, Winona Ryder, and Isabella Rossellini. In 2001 Max Mara opened a three-story store in SoHo on West Broadway in New York. There is also a store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Names of young designers who work for Max Mara are not made public, but top photographers including Richard Avedon have photographed the collections for their advertising campaigns.