The Sportmax design team, showing one day after Max Mara, kept the same pale color palette as its big sister brand, and opened the display on Friday morning with a series of beige trenchcoats.
Some were sleeveless and boasted multiple collars and lapels, cueing up a collection about oversize tailoring and layering.
Sheer fabrics have been trending in Milan, and every runway seems to have at least one barely-there tube skirt. The Sportmax team, plying a more mannish allure, showed a surfeit of wide and low-slung organza pants with box pleats.
But it was the coats and jackets that stood out as models whisked through a clinical white space, hands shoved into pockets and exuding an aloof, offhand urban cool.
Glossy leather coats — part biker jacket, part trench — came hip-length and ankle length, and could be worn with or without the cropped bolero portion. There was something vaguely Claude Montana about them: Ditto the beefy, black cropped bomber jackets with wide shoulders and wide sleeves, and the languid, full-sleeved jeans jacket, worn over super wide denim trousers.
There was a slinky side to this collection, too: Slithery jersey dresses, racer-back silk columns and monastic jersey gowns that were tank-top simple.
While most of the collection was plain, botanical prints crept onto some of the silk dresses and hobo bags. According to the show notes, these were “conceived from drawings painted with Japanese cosmetics, liquid lipsticks and nail polishes.”
These painterly florals also appeared on sheer, opera-length gloves, giving the illusion of sleeve tattoos that can simply be tugged off: No lasers required.