Max Mara: Who Is Max Mara?

Lusuardi, a diamond in the MaxMara vault, has been working with the Maramottis for over 35 years. "When I was in school in 1964, I was 18 and helped my father in his prêt-à-porter boutique," she says. "My father taught me to love fabrics-- and to introduce myself to Mr. Achille Maramotti, in order to intern at the company. In 1969, my first brand project [turned into] a new collection."

That her first stab spiraled into an entire line is a testament to her talent. But true to the Maramotti retail religion, Lusuardi deflects attention and praises her team. For MaxMara is a silent giant. A company more adamant about behind-the-seams anonymity than a supermodel who refuses to eat. (Admit it, you were wondering about a man called Max until enlightenment in paragraph eight.)

Conjuring up a delicious lost world where quality comes before fame and fit takes precedence over frills, Lusardi isn't hip to the society orbit. She doesn't fling bon mots at the press. And although she's been their creative force for nearly four decades, you won't see her gallivanting with luminaries, her name peppering Page Six. This same philosophy is to bless or blame for embroidering the careers of the flat-out-famous like Karl Lagerfeld, Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana and Narciso Rodriguez, whose identities were shrouded in fabric at MaxMara until they moved on to the Next Big Thing (namely, Chanel and eponymous fashion powerhouses). But MaxMara is more than just a hot season or two. It's an all-the-time, 53-year-old and counting, perpetual Big Thing.

"We worked with famous designers, but we didn't need their names," Luigi Maramotti once said. MaxMara fancies teamwork--a motto an elementary school teacher would relish--with Lusuardi as the "orchestra director of creative minds."

"Creativity doesn't last forever. We've seen great designers having a couple of great years, and then all of a sudden, it can get repetitive or they can get down in the favor of the press," says Lusuardi. "We don't want to be prisoners of this machine. MaxMara's philosophy is that creativity goes into every level of the process, from the person who chooses the fabrics to the person who eventually does the merchandising in the store. It's not just about the sketch."

So it seems the last chapter of this story is merely mid-novel for MaxMara. At corporate headquarters in the countryside, partway between Milano and Bologna, half-way between fairytale and modern mega-success, the style magnates are hard at work designing the Fall/Winter collection (cutting-edge meets classic, of course), and rolling out Max & Co. (a younger, trendier line). Four stores are now open in the U.S.: SouthCoast Plaza, Stanford Shopping Center, the Beverly Center and Mandalay Place. There are 40 to 50 more on their way.

There's also a perfume in the making, MaxMara's first fragrance in over 50 years, and a very big deal come September. "We hope it's going to become one of those classic fragrances," Guidotti confides. "We really want to make a major success of it. A classic fragrance called 'MaxMara.' Something to last." For the master of lasting impressions, it should be an easy feat.

The end.

Or rather, a new beginning, once upon another time.

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