Dada – Constructivism – Modernism – a power surge that blew away the old order.
Natalia Goncharova, Lyubov Popova, Irmgard Keun, Hannah Höch; the world was in motion and women the driving force.
Nowhere more than in Berlin, which rocked day and night to the rhythm of the steam pile driver and the drumroll of the cabarets.
For New Machine Age’s girls, Max Mara evokes those sachlich heroines who drove sports cars, flew planes, won places in the science laboratory, the legislature, and the film studio – both sides of the camera.
At the legendary Bauhaus, women students outnumbered men. In the Weaving Workshop musician Gertrud Grunow expounded her radical theories on the dynamic between sound, colour and pattern. Putting her ideas into practice, her (mostly female) students’ artful compositions are music for the eye.
Max Mara’s patchworks – checks, giant chevrons, classic hues and paintbox brights resonate with the zeitgeist.
A lick of the artists’ brush for the iconic Whitney Bag, which comes out in a spectrum of splashy shades.
Paillettes and plastic coated wools – as slick as wet varnish – play counterpoint to Max Mara’s luxurious staples – cashmere, plush shearlings and shaggy washed alpaca.
The boiler suits those pioneering women wore in their draughty workshops (and film studios) translate into luxe combinaisons
and dresses with leather shoulder straps and patch pockets big enough for a set of tools (or a reel of film).
The brisk early morning Phys Ed classes designed to jump start Bauhaus students’ creative neurons inspire athletic knitted shorts, skinny sweaters.
Chunky heeled Oxfords in pony and glossy leather combos and thick soled boots underline the leggy look.
Mannish coats are cut for Moderns: – lean shouldered and ankle grazing,
short and snappy,
roomy and protective – always glamorous.
Some feature contrasting bib fronts or fasten to the side with a zipper.
Dynamic, vigorous, vital: Max Mara buzzes with the unstoppable current of modernity.
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