The show had no room of its own. The runway ran straight through The Max!, the archive exhibition curated by Olivier Saillard: steel shelving, wooden crates, rolls of cloth, sketches and coats, laid out like the company’s storerooms in Reggio Emilia. The Kinetic Chic collection walked between the shelves, and the guests sat on long white benches inside the exhibition.

Most of the light is built into the set. Every shelf and crate carries its own strips and small spots, drawn box by box, so the archive glows from inside. Under the vaults, lines of light and rows of spots on hanging bars hold the concrete in a pale, even grey. The polished floor doubles every shelf. Along the runway the light turns whiter and more even, so the coats keep their true colour against the warm wood.

Balich Wonder Studio held the artistic direction and the executive production, and Giò Forma designed the set. For Blearred, Davide Pedrotti was lighting designer and Ivan Russo project manager, with Matteo Masini as design assistant on the 3D. Francesco Rizzotto drew the CAD and Marzio Del Sole built the 3D model. Francesco Mingoia, Nicolò Maffeis and Matteo De Salvia programmed the show in the studio. In Shanghai, Davide Pedrotti and Gianni Porcaro ran it on site.

Photos courtesy of Max Mara and Balich Wonder Studio.

Seventy-five years of coats, each one lit from its own shelf.