MAX & CO.

MAX & Co. is a retail project founded by the Italian Max Mara Fashion Group in 1986. The brand - and its young creative team - provides customers with high quality, Made in Italy clothing combined with style, glamour and intelligent design. Their aim to deliver a perfectly balanced wardrobe incorporating the latest trends and sustainable must-haves. MAX & Co. describe their style as nonchalant, fresh, dynamic and ‘like the women who select our fashions’, authentic.

Max & Co.

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

‘A project dedicated to young women searching for a personal style made of dresses, accessories and ideas to be freely mixed creating new and transversal languages and codes.’

MAX & Co. collections can be bought in over 40 countries in about 450 single label boutiques and shop-in-shops located in Italy and the rest of the world. There are currently ten shops present in Milan - 6 located in the centre with the biggest one positioned close to Max Mara near the Duomo - including locations such as C.SO Genova 16, Via Dante 7 and C.SO XXII Marzo 20.

Product Price

Dresses - £85 up to £375

Knitwear - £55 up to £185

Blouses - £75 to £169

Trousers - £55 ranging up to £209

Skirts - £95 up to £219

Coats and Jackets - £109 up to £469

Bags - £34 ranging up to £339 for leather

The brand’s target consumers are teenagers and young women aged between 16 and 30 who are looking for smart and effortless designs, and can afford slightly higher prices in exchange for high-standard clothing in quality materials.

I would probably compare this brand with COS due to similar style aesthetics and use of geometric shapes in their accessories and window displays - and Whistles as both brands share similar designs & shapes and have the same type of price range. However I feel like MAX & Co. could be considered more playful than both brands due to its quirky prints and printed t-shirts.

The brand is currently endorsed by TV personality and fashion icon, Olivia Palermo.

Max Mara

Piazza del Liberty, 4

The Italian luxury fashion house was established in 1951, by Achille Maramotti, initially committed to haute couture, whose desire it was to produce high-quality manufactured women’s clothing. The first collection, a camel coat and a geranium red suit, incorporated the ideals of future production - essential and precise, decisive line and clean cuts. The designs were a combination of French style and top class Italian tailoring. Today the Max Mara Group produces all wardrobe categories, as well as the famous coats and suits, with countless accessories and fashion items.

Max Mara symbolises the best of Italian ready-to-wear, and currently includes many more sister lines including the Weekend, which focuses on more affordable clothing and less expensive fabrics, iBLUES, on separates, Max & Co. and Marina Rinaldi, as a homage to Achilles's grandmother, a line that is aimed at larger women. In 2010 Max Mara accumulated a turnover of over billion Euros and a net profit of 55 million.

With stores in over 70 countries and eight in Milan alone - in some of the most affluent areas - Max Mara’s luxurious style has always achieved rising success on a worldwide scale demonstrated today by over 2,300 stores.

The price of the products vary, starting from somewhat affordable prices with £215 for a shift dress up to a staggering £1,600 for a ball gown.

Blouses and shirts come within a £130 and £400 price range.

Skirts starting at £130 up to £900.

Trousers at £150 ranging up to £350.

Traditional Italian bags varying from £200 to up to £1000.

Max Mara’s target market is ‘a woman that is full of Passion, commitment and tradition at the service of a fashion interpreted with personality and rigour’.

The brand also claim that the target consumers for Max Mara labels range from teenage girls to women over 60, however I find it a little hard to believe, as even though the sister labels of Max Mara are a bit more affordable - iBLUES and MAX & Co. aimed at a younger audience - prices still start quite high at around £80 for a dress ranging up to £300. The brand’s consumers most likely come from middle to upper class families as they would be able to afford the higher prices.

Max Mara Brand Values

'Commitment, sense of belonging, entrepreneurship, managerial skills are the main values on which Max Mara's success is founded. All this has allowed passion, innovation and creativity in the women's fashion sector to express itself and continuously develop within precise style identities.'

#MaxCo #Milano #retail #MaxMara