What makes a modern-day enfant terrible? How would they dress? Which stylistic codes would they abide by, and which would they reject? These are the questions being asked by MAX&Co. for Fall/Winter 2025.
Conventionally, the enfant terrible is a provocateur, a conversation starter—crucially, someone (or something) who is not afraid to break the rules. As far as brands go in this regard, MAX&Co. might not be, at least initially, top of mind. No, the Italian label isn’t churning out viral runway moments or revolutionising sartorial codes. But this is a quieter revolution, one built on everyday acts of resistance, of individuality, of wearability.
Far from the fantasies or grandiose displays associated with fashion provocateurs of old, MAX&Co.’s philosophy is one based firmly in reality—in how our day-to-day choices of action and style, our quotidian moments of courage, shape who we are as individuals.
Brought into the world as the rebellious offspring of an altogether more mature Max Mara, MAX&Co. brings a livelier, youthful, at times even irreverent edge to Italian fashion. As noted in our last look at the brand’s revamped direction, this is for young, professional and style-conscious women looking for clothes that represent their actual personalities, rather than the expectations foisted upon them.
The creation of MAX&Co. itself, as well as each of the pieces the brand creates, are small actualizations of possibilities, minute expressions of free will. Want luxurious, wearable clothes that are young and fresh… why not create a sibling brand that makes them? Want to mix the polished with the playful, the refined with the spontaneous… why not blur those lines? Ask a series of “why not”s such as these and you might just arrive at something resembling this collection.
Travel too far down this path, and brands tend to veer dangerously towards the kitsch—’playfulness’ in fashion too often denotes a garish use of color or an unruly clash of textures. But in the case of MAX&Co., being playful and young does not prohibit being refined—in fact, quite the opposite. At their liveliest, these are pieces that explode with color; at their most muted, they fit sharply and snugly in grown-up monochromes.
Produced by Highsnobiety, the brand’s accompanying campaign takes the apparent irreverence of its FW25 collection and translates it into a series of wry vignettes. How does the MAX&Co. woman act on her free will? How does she live against the grain? Here she is standing on a car, hand-in-hand with a friend and gazing straight at the camera; here she is clambering over a railing, presumably late to a gallery opening and hopeful for a shortcut.
Movement and dynamism are just as essential to these clothes as their aesthetic ingenuity: they are, crucially, clothes to move, live and act in. ‘Style’ here is not driven by trends; it may not be driven by clothes at all—rather, by a way of living invoked by the clothes and the way in which they’re worn. In short, clothes for people with personalities, not clothes for clothes.
So, would it be ridiculous to say that we might soon be hailing this young-ish Italian brand as the enfant terrible of Italian fashion? Well, given the brand’s direction and pace—as well as its proven commitment to making clothes that defy trends and go against the grain—stranger things have happened. MAX&Co.'s message is clear: watch this space.
Check out the full MAX&Co. FW25 collection here.
