Politely perverse: Maximilian Davis sharpens Ferragamo’s edges
For Spring/Summer 2027, Maximilian Davis looked to the propriety and power-dressing of the 1940s, corrupting it with a fetishistic undercurrent. Anders Christian Madsen reviews the show.
Control was the word of the season at Ferragamo where Maximilian Davis looked to 1940s power-dressing. “It was a period when clothing, and its structure, created a certain posture and propriety: the placement of a pocket could dictate how you would stand and behave,” he said after the show. The idea ran through the collection in cinched waists, strict tailoring, military pockets and a silhouette that held the body with a kind of propriety.
“The ’40s silhouette is where women were bringing back the waist,” Davis said. “I really wanted to bring that into the collection, making sure that the waist was the feature of a lot of the looks.” High-rise trousers, belted jackets and close, elongated dresses made that emphasis feel almost architectural: disciplined. Davis had been looking at Lee Miller in Egypt in the 1930s with all the desert tones and dry fabrics that embodied her wardrobe. He spoke about being drawn to “tones and colours of something that’s very neutral”, translating it into fabrics with a dry, sun-faded quality.
But the discipline also materialised in more lascivious ways: leather, rubber and crocodile surfaces gave the collection a seedier charge, which made things more interesting. Davis’s Ferragamo is at its best when the sophisticated polish that embodies the house is disturbed by something more perverse. The propriety of the 1940s silhouette made the fetishistic undercurrent feel all the stronger. Control, after all, is made all the more interesting when it’s threatened.
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