If you’ve watched the films of Vittorio De Sica or Giuseppe De Santis, then you’ve probably seen her: the Italian Woman, strong and sensual and, above all, stylish. You could see echoes of this ideal image at Max Mara’s Cruise 2026 show, which was presented at the Reggia di Caserta in Naples—the largest palace in all of Europe back in the 18th century.
But Max Mara’s creative director Ian Griffiths was concerned with an entirely different era when creating the collection. He looked to the year 1951—when Max Mara was founded, post-war Italy was flourishing and Italian cinema was in the middle of its Golden Age. It was during this time that the image of the aforementioned Italian Woman was being immortalised in the neorealist films of De Sica and De Santis, and brought to life by actresses like Sophia Loren and Silvana Mangano.
The two screen stars appear in Griffiths’s moodboard for Max Mara’s Cruise 2026 collection, along with Ruth Orkin’s famous photograph of a young woman walking, unaccompanied and unbothered, down a street in Florence as men look on. The photograph, shot in 1951, is titled American Girl In Italy; Orkin used it in a Cosmopolitan photo essay about women travelling abroad alone, which was a rare thing to do at the time.
All this imagery points to the idea of the Max Mara woman as someone who is strong, bold and independent. But Griffiths didn’t forget her sense of style. At the Cruise 2026 show, models came down the runway in timeless Max Mara coats, including styles with shawl collars and fringes, as well as a new teddy coat in powder pink. That feminine hue was also seen in glamorous silk pyjama sets and relaxed striped shirts paired with high-waisted shorts—a nod to the shorts worn by Mangano in De Santis’s Bitter Rice.
The silk pieces were noteworthy for reasons beyond hue. Max Mara collaborated with the Neapolitan tiemaker E. Marinella to use its 1951 prints—originally designed for men’s ties—across silk pieces worthy of a screen siren, including knotted bra tops, shirts worn half open, and full skirts that were all the rage in the ‘50s. Motifs from those prints were also supersized and embroidered onto cashmere sweaters and cardigans, carrying on the theme of statement knitwear that was seen in Max Mara’s Venice-inspired Cruise 2025 collection.
Another form of embellishment seen in this collection are crystals. The sparkling stones appeared on strapless, sweeping gowns, which came in black and Max Mara’s signature camel. Equally dramatic was a cream off-shoulder dress covered in crystals, styled with sheer silk gauze gloves and sunglasses—a look that exudes movie star glamour. (On Griffiths’s moodboard is a photo of Italian actress Alba Clemente, mid-laugh, in dark sunglasses, a Max Mara coat and little else—that kind of movie star glamour.)
With Max Mara’s Cruise 2026 show, Griffiths captures not just the nuances of Italian style as seen in cinema, but also the philosophy of “bella figura”, the Italian expression used to describe the importance of always looking impeccable and cutting a fine figure. With the new collection, designed for various settings and situations, the Max Mara woman can do exactly that.
The Best Looks Of The Max Mara Cruise 2026 Collection
READ MORE
How Max Mara’s Whitney Bag Won Over Celebrities From Lee Sung Kyung To Pia Wurtzbach
Dior Cruise 2026: Roman Reverie At The Villa Albani Torlonia