FERRAGAMO SPRING-SUMMER 2024

For Spring-Summer 2024, Maximilian Davis explores and evolves the codes he has developed at Ferragamo, imbuing his distinct aesthetic with organic ease while drawing on the relationship between balance and tension.

“I wanted things to feel a lot 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 have found in the Italian way of dressing and living: an effortlessness which feels very Caribbean. The idea of doing everything at your own pace, on 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 positioned natural materials alongside industrial elements and elevated the everyday through careful consideration. For Spring-Summer 2024, humble linens and cotton are approached with rigorous finesse, bonded onto satins for capes or treated to appear as leather; sculptural wooden accessories and details polished to perfection; precise silhouettes expressed in natural fabrics. “I really wanted the pieces to feel very pure and honest; for the collection to be relatable within a wardrobe, but interesting in terms of the touch of the hand.”

Throughout, there appears a subversive interplay between restraint and freedom: a slouching insouciance is expressed in the worn texture of leather tailoring, while pristine mid-century tailoring is slashed into fluidity. Viscose jersey drapery, rooted in Ferragamo’s Florentine heritage and echoed in 18th century Caribbean dress, now appears paired with the language of Renaissance armor: molded spazzolato leather bodices and rigid, high-shine inserts.

The perverse sensibility inherent to Davis’ work remains quietly omnipresent: elegant day dresses paired with high patent boots or cut deep at the chest, men’s loungewear shorts cropped high on the thigh, T-shirts twisted as though quickly pulled on. “Fetishism is something that runs through the DNA of my work,” he explains. “There’s something modern about incorporating that in your daily life and daily wardrobe.”

Shoes and Bags

Within the collection, that sentiment is clearly apparent within footwear: nappa latex shoes and gaucho lak boots draw on Davis’ aesthetic proclivities while using the craftsmanship of Ferragamo’s footwear ateliers to ensure comfort and wearability. A 1955 archival style, the Calypso, informs the design of a banana cage heel, now 3D printed and galvanized. “I wanted to find the codes that we explored in previous collections and reiterate them,” says Davis – and the familiar curvilinear heel of a platform now appears in horn as the foundation for a high-shine sandal, and a T-strap strung with natural beads and stones. For men, Ferragamo’s heritage is revived with a contemporary vocabulary: Oxfords, moccasins and driver shoes are deconstructed, or inset with contrasting vitello latex for a new twist on the classics.

Equally, handbags continue the graphic lines and geometric forms begun in previous collections: the contemporary classic, the Hug, appears as a high-shine pouch in a rainbow of saturated shades, as well as canvas and leather iterations. The luxurious Fiamma shoulder bag which distorts symmetries and repositions an archival Ferragamo lighter as its closure, appears throughout, while the frame bag is now fringed with wooden beads in the spirit of the season. For men, the understated purity of the Star takes centre stage, its meticulous, bonded construction and lack of hardware allowing for its softest and most lightweight form.