Maximilian Davis’s Debut Show For Ferragamo S/S'23

A sultry shade of red dominated 27-year-old Mancunian designer Maximilian Davis's debut show for Ferragamo, debuting a spring/summer 2023 collection that celebrated sensuality, new Hollywood glamour and a redefinition of archival codes. Here, British Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen breaks down the five biggest takeaways from the anticipated show.

It was Maximilian Davis’s debut for Ferragamo

Watching Maximilian Davis’s first show unfold for the brand now known simply as Ferragamo, it was hard to believe that the 27-year-old Manchurian designer only had two previous runway presentations under his belt. Set in the vast courtyard of the palazzo of the former Archbishop’s Seminary on Corso Venezia – a building Ferragamo is currently turning into a Portrait Hotel – the scale of the show was epic. Davis filled it, quite literally, with red sand echoing the colour of the flag of his Trinidadian background, which defined the palette for the collections he presented under Lulu Kennedy’s Fashion East in London.

It was sensual glamour

What resonates between Davis’s previous work and the heritage of Ferragamo is a certain idea of sophisticated glamour: the kind that focus on gestures rather than statements, on cuts rather than surface decoration, and employs sensuality as the ultimate tool for seduction. You could find all those elements in Davis’s debut approach: “I wanted to pay tribute to Salvatore’s start by bringing in the culture of Hollywood – but new Hollywood,” he said. “Its ease and sensuality; it's sunset and sunrise.” He interpreted those things in gradient colours painted across his signature sexy, sheathing, slithering constructions, veiling bodies – male and female – in solar filters informed by Rachel Harrison’s Sunset Series colours.

It undressed Ferragamo

In his experiments with lightness and undress, Davis brought a sense of sexiness to Ferragamo that his press notes described as “fetishism”: tiny little shorts on men and women constructed in rigid leather and paired with matching jackets; leggings and tight shorts that left little to the imagination, barely-there bandeau tops and bras, and dresses so transparent you got a full body view. In an era where nudity is hailed and normalised like never before – just scroll through a red carpet or a social media feed – those elements made a proposition to a new generation, who perhaps wasn’t looking at Ferragamo before, and might connect with Davis’s celebrity fanbase that already includes Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and Dua Lipa.

It was Davis’s accessories debut

Ferragamo, of course, is founded in shoes and accessories. As a young designer, this driving force behind the house is Davis’s biggest challenge and greatest new adventure. “I want each piece to feel playful, but also desirable as an object – to stand on its own,” he said of his first forays into those corners of the business. They included new up- and down-scaled interpretation of the Wanda bag from 1988 and a bag with organically-shaped cut-outs in contrast colours including Davis’s signature red. He approached the architectonic language of shoes with the same sensuality of his garments, in sandals with circular heels, delicate takes on Roman sandals, and trendy leather slippers.

It signified change

“It was about looking into the archive and establishing what could be redefined to become relevant for today,” Davis said of his collection. In his debut show, he let the red sand speak for itself. “It relates to Ferragamo, to Hollywood, to the ocean – but also to me, and to my own DNA, to what the sea means to Caribbean culture: a place where you can go to reflect and feel at one. I wanted to show that perspective, but now through the Ferragamo lens.”