For Spring-Summer 2024, Maximilian Davis explores and evolves the codes he has developed at Ferragamo, imbuing his distinctive aesthetic with an organic ease, while drawing inspiration from the relationship between balance and tension. “I wanted things to look much lighter, both in terms of fabric and construction, but also in terms of how people want to dress,” Davis explains. “There’s a familiarity I’ve found in the Italian way of dressing and living: a lack of effort that feels very Caribbean. The idea of doing everything at your own pace, in your own time.”
While drawing parallels between the spirit of Italian and Caribbean dress codes, the collection also finds inspiration in the situated contrasts of Italy’s Arte Povera movement, which often placed natural materials alongside industrial elements and elevated the everyday through careful consideration. For spring-summer 2024, humble linens and cottons are approached with rigorous delicacy, bonded to satins for layering or treated to look like leather; accessories and sculptural wooden details polished to perfection; precise silhouettes expressed in natural fabrics. “I wanted the garments to look pure and honest, for the collection to be relatable to a closet, but interesting by the feel of the hand.”
Throughout the collection, there is a subversive interplay between restraint and freedom: the worn texture of leather tailoring expresses a slouchy insouciance, while pristine mid-century tailoring acquires fluidity. Viscose jersey draping, rooted in Ferragamo’s Florentine heritage and with echoes of 18th century Caribbean garb, now appears paired with the language of Renaissance armor: molded spazzolato leather bodices and rigid high-shine inserts.
The perverse sensibility inherent in Davis’s work remains quietly omnipresent: elegant day dresses paired with high patent leather boots or cut deep across the chest, men’s shorts cut off at the thigh, T-shirts twisted as if hastily thrown on. “Fetishism is something that is present in the DNA of my work,” he explains. “There’s something modern about incorporating that into your daily life and your daily wardrobe.”
Shoes and bags
Within the collection, that sentiment is clearly evident in the footwear: the nappa latex shoes and gaucho lak boots are inspired by Davis’ aesthetic inclinations, while utilizing the craftsmanship of Ferragamo’s shoe workshops to ensure comfort and wearability. An archival style from 1955, the Calypso, informs the design of a banana cage heel, now 3D printed and galvanized. “I wanted to find the codes we had explored in previous collections and reiterate them,” says Davis, and the familiar curvaceous heel of a platform now appears in horn as the base of a high-shine sandal and a T-strap set with beads and natural stones. For men, Ferragamo’s heritage is revived with a contemporary vocabulary: Oxfords, loafers and drivers’ shoes are deconstructed, or inserted with contrasting latex vitello for a new twist on the classics.
Similarly, the bags continue the graphic lines and geometric shapes initiated in previous collections: the contemporary classic, the Hug, appears as a high-gloss bag in a rainbow of saturated hues, as well as in canvas and leather versions. The luxurious Fiamma shoulder bag, which distorts symmetries and reinserts an archival Ferragamo lighter as a clasp, appears throughout, while the frame bag is now adorned with wooden beaded bangs in the spirit of the season. For men, the discreet purity of the Star is the protagonist, its meticulous bonded construction and absence of hardware allowing for its softer, lighter form.
