We meet Ian Griffiths, the creative director of Max Mara, for a one-on-one interview at Singapore's historical The Fullerton Bay Hotel — in The Landing Point dining area with a view of the Singapore River before us. The former punk rocker from the North of England is wearing a suit from Savile Row tailor Timothy Everest, but assures us that although he dresses in a classic way, he is not a conservative. This is a fitting location: The high ceilings, and modern, light-filled space has both a sense of history and of ease — two elements that play a considerable part in each collection that Griffiths has designed for the brand.
The affable 53-year-old Brit has seen Max Mara grow from strength to strength since 1987, when he joined the company, fresh out of fashion school. Today, he remains respectful of the brand’s heritage and its customers, having worked as an in-house designer for the brand for over 20 years before his current appointment. He is clear about the brand’s philosophy of real clothes for real women, which still holds true today, and describes it as his automatic instinct. He also knows that retaining existing Max Mara customers — some of whom have been wearing the brand throughout their decades-long careers — is of utmost importance. He mentions that his 83-year-old mother is his star and that, “it would be a tremendous betrayal to abandon the woman that we have been dressing all the way through her career.” Griffiths has clear ideas on how to attract the youth market and will not succumb to trends like doing streetwear for the sake of it. “I think that for me, the important thing about pursuing a younger market was not to throw all the cards up in the air and throw the baby out with the bathwater — to mix metaphors. I wanted to find a way of making a younger market, want to come to us rather than us to chase after the young market,” says Griffiths.
This story is from the February 2020 edition of T Singapore: The New York Times Style Magazine.
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This story is from the February 2020 edition of T Singapore: The New York Times Style Magazine.
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