Max Mara Spring/Summer 2019, Milan
from Johnny Dynell Hosted by Johnny Dynell
Circe was classified as a nymph, a fairly low grade on the scale of immortals. Amphritite, on the other hand, was the great granddaughter to Gaea, amongst the ‘chiefest of the goddesses’ according to Homer, queen of all the oceans, its fauna and flora. That was before Poseidon came along and tricked her into second place. Now, after aeons in obscurity, Amphritite’s time has come again! Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths takes inspiration from these divine heroines, and dips into Max Mara's own fabled history. Anne- Marie Beretta was the brand’s designer in the 1980’s; she too was fascinated by the potent symbolism of the classical world. Myths and legends; epic tales that illuminate eternal human experience. The stories are as unchanging as the well worn stones of an ancient city -and yet each age extracts lessons relevant to its own time. Just as academics are unearthing forgotten evidence of the female hand in history, so too the classical anthology is getting a rewrite -from the woman’s perspective. Emily Watson’s is the first translation of ‘The Odyssey’ by a woman (how the choice of a single word over another can recast a story in a completely different light), Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Penelopiad’ tells pragmatic, smart and longanimous Penelope’s side of the story, Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’ recasts the much maligned witch who turned Odysseus’s men into swine as a strong, brilliant woman who dared to know her own mind.
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