The Event
Dec. 15Th 2016, Shanghai Exhibition Center - Max Mara is proud to showcase Monopolis!, the worldwide presentation of the Pre-Fall 2017 collection. The concept of the event, in collaboration with Chinese contemporary artist Liu Wei, will feature a special installation for the fashion show created by the Artist himself.

A thousand guests, including Chinese celebrities, top clients and press from all over the world, will enjoy the spectacular show and party.

As a celebration of this particular moment, Max Mara has preciously crafted a 11- pieces capsule collection in collaboration with Liu Wei, that will be featured within the show.

This special limited edition will be available for purchase exclusively right after the show on maxmara.com and in 45 Flagship stores worldwide.

The Project
text by Francesco Bonami
The idea for a collaboration between one of the most prominent Chinese artists, Liu Wei and Max Mara came from observing the many points of intersection between their two worlds. Starting with the shared field of the urban landscape, the perfect environment for Max Mara’s characters, we proceeded to build a show which reads like the script of a possible movie. Liu Wei’s sculptures and paintings are the setting set for a fashion narrative where sophisticated materials, fabrics and patterns are transported to an imaginary future city loaded with tradition, knowledge and legacies, but not shy of technological advance.

The idea is to ask Liu Wei to create with his works a vessel that will carry the Max Mara heritage in a present still to be defined. It is all about how women, accompanied by Max Mara, will envision themselves crossing a terrain which feels like a planet created by Liu Wei. On this ground rises Monopolis, a city created out of time stretching both backwards and forwards, unique and unified. Liu Wei's sculptures will function as Monopolis' landmarks creating a parcours through which Max Mara’s women will travel. Monopolis will create a dialogue between the utterly innovative use of materials by Liu Wei and the utterly fascinating and exceptionally crafted Max Mara collection. Liu Wei’s materials are both part of some kind of industrial archeology and the result of a truly human craftsmanship. They see the now of human condition through the remains of an imaginary “yesterday” projected into a visionary tomorrow.

The environment first will appear immaterial as though immersed in morning fog like that surrounding the mountains and the landscapes of traditional Chinese paintings to reveal slowly the powerful physicality of the fantastic elements created by Liu Wei which Max Mara’s heroines will inhabit like free spirits of a new metropolitan reality

The Pre-Fall 2017 collection
Imaginary and hyperreal - all the world's great conurbations merge into the ultimate city. Liu Wei realizes his vision of Monopolis as the mise en scene for a spectacular Max Mara show. His eye penetrates the architectural fantasies and sees through to the inexorable entropy of the urban fabric. Monopolis is a living organism - the archaeology of its familiar spaces and landmarks embodies the memories and stories of its citizens - past, present, and future. On one side, its perpetual energy is electrifying. On the other hand though the city's restless metamorphosis creates a sense of confusion, disorientation and alienation.

Max Mara is all about the city too; street smart, chic and luxurious urban kit that lightens up the downtown experience. After all, the concrete jungle is the only place for a woman on her way to the top and it doesn't seem half as tough when she is swathed in Max Mara.

The show is played out like a retro-futuristic film about the fantastical mega city; Max Mara envisages the characters who inhabit its shady precincts as the darkly glamorous and selfpossessed screen heroines of Film Noir. Johnny Dynell's original soundtrack recaptures the urbane elegance and knife-edge thrill of the uniquely metropolitan genre.

Legendary movie stars, Joan Crawford, Lauren Bacall; their cool, collected, sirenic style is focused through Liu Wei's prism. The result; a hint of rawness that confers a wholly modern dimension. Max Mara's trademark camel-white-black trio meets the Liu Wei colour spectrum - crystalline tones that work together in seductive combinations. Meticulously executed trompe l'oeil prints and jacquards reproduce layers of frayed fabrics overlaid with an elaborate chain stitch tracery, suggesting the labyrinthine topography of the metropolis, or the footprints of grand utopian quartiers.

For the daily grind and sybaritic pleasures, the steamy swelter of late summer and sudden autumn chills Max Mara Pre Fall 2017 rewrites the urban dress code with an emphasis on easy, instant star quality. Silhouettes and stand outs? Forties style razor sharp darted shoulders and cinched waists, vampishly ruched tulle skirts and dresses, glam new sweats, tailored pants and all-in-ones with gathered cuffs, knee high lace-up boots and reptilian chunky heeled pumps, a bag for every look. And, of course, coats -in opulent cashmere, camel's hair and alpaca - combining decorous understatement with bombshell glamour like only Max Mara knows how. Slip one on, walk the mean streets of Monopolis like you own them - and one day, Lady, you probably will.

The capsule collection
Street maps and architectural plans document the city's perpetual metamorphosis; dreams for the future and memories of the past. The topography of real and imaginary metropolises inspires a Max Mara limited edition capsule conceived in collaboration with Liu Wei.

Eleven highly original pieces are executed in the signature Max Mara palette; camel, black and white. Italian craftsmanship meets state-of-the art technology. A glamorous wrap coat and a slouchy bomber are constructed from a layer of laser cut alpaca embroidered onto a base of wool and cashmere. Meticulously executed trompe l'oeil prints and jacquards reproduce layers of frayed fabrics overlaid with an elaborate chainstitch tracery that suggests the blueprint of some utopian precinct. The contours of fuzzy knitted mohair sweater and cardigan delineate an idiosyncratic urban matrix.

Sunglasses with a multilayered construction and a polyform clutch bear the artist's unmistakeable imprint.

The city is a major theme for Liu Wei. His work describes relentless -sometimes disorientating- march of progress, and shines a light on the grittier places behind those slick planes of concrete, gleaming glass and steel. Max Mara is all about the city too; streetsmart, chic and luxurious urban kit that lightens up the downtown experience. After all, the concrete jungle is the only place for a woman on her way to the top. Designed with her in mind, Max Mara + Liu Wei is cosmopolitan, cool, and collectable.

The capsule collection will be available on December 15th right after the show at Max Mara flagship stores and on maxmara.com