“I was trying to strike a balance between Jane Eyre’s iron-willed restraint and Catherine Earnshaw’s untamed, wind-swept ferocity—to find a woman who exists somewhere between these two emotional extremes.” That was Ian Griffiths’s pre-show thesis for a Max Mara collection that sought to bottle the stormy, windswept romance of the Brontëan heroines—high drama, but make it wearable.
Ah, the white shirt—so deceptively simple, yet a mainstay of wardrobes from Milan to Tokyo, a garment that claims purity but is as laden with history and artifice as any Balenciaga runway show. It’s the great equalizer of fashion, effortlessly transitioning from the pressed perfection of Brooks Brothers to the disheveled charm of a Comme des Garçons deconstruction, all the while maintaining that aloof stance of something both crucial and utterly indifferent to the whims of trends. One might think of it as the Big Mac of garments—ubiquitous, reliable, but with the potential for gourmet refinement (even if, sometimes, it's best enjoyed as is, ketchup dripping, no curation necessary).
Max Mara’s Spring 2025 Ready-to-Wear collection, showcased at Milan Fashion Week, was a fusion of fashion and science, with creative director Ian Griffiths drawing inspiration from the Apple TV+ series *Lessons in Chemistry* and trailblazing women in science like Hypatia, the 4th-century philosopher and mathematician.
In the ever-evolving landscape of summer fashion, the white shirt stands as a timeless beacon of versatility and elegance. As contributing editors and style aficionados know, this simple yet sophisticated garment transcends trends, offering a canvas for both day and night transformations.
