Max Mara: Who Is Max Mara?

Luigi is now president of MaxMara s.r.l., encompassing a multitude of brands (MaxMara, Marina Rinaldi, Sportmax and Max & Co. are sold stateside), Ignazio is MaxMara's managing director and Maria Ludovica is the president of Manifatture de Nord s.r.l., overseeing strategic product development. Keeping it in la famiglia, Ignazio's wife and Maria's husband are also involved. And the nine grandchildren? Chances are, their day will come.

"If you ask them if they were forced or if they chose the family business, they would all say they chose it," says Giorgio Guidotti, president of worldwide communications for the MaxMara Fashion Group. "Because, of course, they say it's part of their DNA."

SO WHO IS THE MAXMARA MUSE? A woman of sophisticated style, cultured and well-traveled. Take C.Z. Guest, a Boston debutante and MaxMara admirer honored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America as a Fashion Icon. Or Cate Blanchett, an actress of stunning taste and elegance, who got married in a white cashmere MaxMara coat.

The house might be known more for daywear than red carpet, Sex and the City-esque "zsa-zsa-zsu," but MaxMara still adorns its share of celebrities, from Isabella Rossellini to cover girl Liv Tyler, from Susan Sarandon to Catherine Zeta-Jones. This kiss-kiss rapport with Hollywood also extends into costume design, most recently swathing Angela Bassett in the upcoming The Lazarus Child.

While the fashionably fabulous often get caught up in egregiously expensive wisps and impractical design, MaxMara creates with sensibility in mind. "Malcolm McLaren, who with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood were the stars of the punk movement in the '70s, once said to me, 'We see so many shows that are made to sell lipstick. MaxMara is really made to show women what they can buy,'" says Guidotti. "We were having dinner in Paris during Fashion Week, and it was true. You see some incredible shows, but in the end, nobody can buy those clothes, and they are made to sell lipstick and perfume. Editors expect beautiful, modern and wearable [clothes from us]."

The MaxMara woman doesn't yank all her frocks from her closet, throwing fits that there's nothing to wear, because a MaxMara wardrobe is based in reality, with confections of timeless chic. And design director Laura Lusuardi, for whom a vacation means traveling to India to see how people make beads, weaves her love of fabrics and commitment to fine tailoring into authentic runway dreams.

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