For Spring/Summer 2027, Maximilian Davis turns to the structured wardrobes of the 1940s, introducing unexpected materials and a distinctly contemporary sensuality. His work at Ferragamo reveals an interpretation of Italian elegance built on precise proportions, historical curiosity and an intimate understanding of the body.
A grey double-breasted jacket dress, its shoulders broad and its waist secured by two narrow belts, opened Ferragamo’s Spring/Summer 2027 show in Milan. The silhouette was unmistakably reminiscent of the 1940s, with its controlled proportions and almost uniform-like formality. Yet the doubled fastening introduced something less conventional, drawing attention to the waist while making the garment’s structure unusually explicit. It was a fitting introduction to a collection in which familiar elements of tailored dress were gradually altered through material, proportion and exposure.
Presented on 26 September at the Triennale Milano, the collection continued Maximilian Davis’s exploration of twentieth-century fashion history. Since becoming Ferragamo’s creative director in 2022, Davis has developed a recognisable approach to the house’s heritage, drawing on the relationship between Italian craftsmanship, Hollywood glamour and modern design. His collections have frequently examined historical periods through the clothing associated with them, but Spring/Summer 2027 brought particular attention to the ways garments shape the posture and behaviour of their wearers.
The result was neither a conventional revival of 1940s fashion nor a simple contrast between conservative tailoring and revealing clothing. Davis appeared more interested in the qualities that make a garment feel formal, desirable or provocative, and in how those qualities change when familiar materials and construction methods are used differently. Through sharply defined waists, utilitarian details, translucent surfaces and fluid eveningwear, the collection offered an interpretation of elegance that was controlled without being entirely proper.
Wartime silhouettes
The 1940s provided Davis with a vocabulary of clothing closely associated with discipline and practicality. Tailored suits, military-inspired outerwear and work uniforms were designed around clearly defined proportions, while the social circumstances of the decade influenced the ways women dressed for professional and public life. The movement of women into industrial and other forms of wartime employment gave particular significance to functional clothing, even as established expectations of feminine appearance persisted.
Davis approached this history through the physical relationship between clothing and the body. In his collection notes, he observed that the placement of a pocket could influence how a person stood or behaved, reflecting an interest in garments as objects that guide movement rather than simply follow it. That observation became visible throughout the collection, where belts, pockets and structured shoulders contributed to a silhouette that seemed deliberately composed.
High-waisted tailoring appeared close to the body, frequently secured with double belts that emphasised the narrowest point of the torso. Pencil skirts incorporated oversized military-style pockets, while utility vests were worn beneath tailored jackets. Trench coats retained their recognisable construction but opened into flared skirts, allowing a garment associated with protection and practicality to acquire a more decorative movement.
These details did not function solely as historical references. Their placement changed the visual balance of the clothes, sometimes exaggerating the formality of a silhouette and elsewhere introducing an unexpected physicality. A belt could suggest discipline while drawing attention to the body beneath it, just as a utilitarian pocket could become an ornamental feature through its scale and position.
The distinction matters because Davis’s historical approach is rarely concerned with reproducing an entire period. His interest lies in identifying particular elements of dress and examining what happens when they are separated from their original context. The 1940s provided the collection’s structural foundation, but the clothes were unmistakably contemporary in their treatment of material and sensuality.
Cut and contour
Precision has become one of the most consistent characteristics of Davis’s work at Ferragamo. His tailoring often relies on relatively clear lines, with proportions carefully controlled to create a particular relationship between the shoulders, waist and hips. Spring/Summer 2027 developed this approach through garments that appeared rigorous at first glance but revealed considerable variation in their construction.
The opening jacket dress established a silhouette that recurred throughout the show. Broad shoulders and a defined waist created a strong vertical structure, while the placement of fastenings and pockets interrupted the conventional balance of tailored clothing. The doubled belts were especially significant, functioning as visual devices that reinforced the waist while making the act of fastening part of the design.
Elsewhere, the relationship between masculine and feminine tailoring became less straightforward. Suits incorporated utility elements traditionally associated with workwear, while leather collars and ties introduced a harder, more tactile quality. These details altered the familiar language of formal dressing without abandoning its underlying structure.
Davis’s approach to tailoring is particularly interesting because it does not depend on exaggerated deconstruction. The garments remain recognisable as jackets, skirts, coats and suits, but relatively small interventions change how they are perceived. A pocket is enlarged, a waist is secured twice or a conventional material is replaced by something unexpected. Such decisions allow the collection to retain the visual clarity associated with Italian tailoring while introducing an element of unease.
This understanding of proportion also extends to the relationship between clothing and posture. The structured garments encourage an upright, composed silhouette, but their close fit and deliberate emphasis on the waist introduce a sensuality that complicates their formal appearance. Davis uses tailoring to define the body, allowing discipline and attraction to occupy the same garment.
Rubber, leather and silk
Material experimentation provided the collection’s most striking departures from historical dress. Alongside conventional tailoring and fluid silk, Davis introduced translucent rubber, leather and glossy python, using their contrasting surfaces to reconsider the familiar shapes of outerwear and formal clothing.
A teal trench coat worn by Anok Yai was among the clearest examples. Constructed in translucent rubber, it retained the recognisable proportions of a traditional trench while replacing the expected fabric with a material that altered both its appearance and its relationship to the body. The surface reflected light differently from cotton gabardine, while its transparency complicated the protective function ordinarily associated with the garment.
Other rubber pieces, including short dresses and outerwear, explored a similar contradiction. Their shapes were relatively familiar, but the material introduced associations with industrial design, fetish clothing and protective garments. The effect was provocative without requiring elaborate decoration, relying instead on the contrast between the garment’s conventional form and its unexpected surface.
Leather served a different purpose. Used for shirts, collars and accessories, it brought weight and definition to pieces usually associated with softer materials. A leather shirt maintains the recognisable construction of everyday clothing while introducing a more rigid relationship with the body, making the familiar silhouette appear less casual.
Against these structured and tactile surfaces, silk introduced movement. Draped and knotted pieces softened the collection’s sharper lines, while extended lengths of fabric created a sense of fluidity that contrasted with the compact proportions of the tailoring. The material appeared particularly effective in eveningwear, where the absence of heavy structure allowed the fabric to respond more freely to the wearer’s movement.
These contrasts are central to Davis’s interpretation of elegance. Rather than relying on a consistent material language, he brings together surfaces that produce different physical and visual effects. Rubber can make a formal coat unexpectedly revealing, while silk can give a carefully constructed garment an appearance of ease. The collection’s sensuality emerges from these material decisions as much as from the amount of skin exposed.
Studied sensuality
Although Spring/Summer 2027 was one of Davis’s more overtly sensual collections for Ferragamo, its appeal did not depend entirely on revealing silhouettes. Much of its sensuality came from the relationship between clothing and the body, particularly the ways garments alternately concealed, defined and exposed their wearers.
The translucent rubber pieces made this relationship especially visible. Their surfaces created a changing impression of the figure beneath, revealing certain contours while obscuring others. The effect recalled photographic experiments with light and exposure, an important influence on the collection’s development.
Davis drew inspiration from Lee Miller and Man Ray, whose work explored surrealism and the experimental possibilities of photography. Their investigations into solarisation, a technique that produces unexpected tonal reversals and outlines, informed his interest in the visual relationship between material, light and the body.
The reference was more substantial than a purely aesthetic association. Miller’s photography, including images produced during her time in Egypt and her later work as a wartime correspondent, offered Davis a connection between the 1930s and 1940s, photographic experimentation and changing representations of women.
This influence could be recognised in the way translucent materials altered the visibility of the body. Light passing through rubber or sheer fabric created areas of relative clarity and obscurity, producing a visual effect that changed according to the garment’s position and movement. The clothes did not reproduce surrealist photographs, but they translated an interest in photographic perception into material form.
The collection’s more revealing elements also challenged the formality of its historical references. Dresses with open backs, close-fitting silhouettes and strategically placed belts introduced a direct physicality into garments otherwise associated with carefully regulated dress. Davis’s treatment of sensuality was therefore closely connected to his treatment of tailoring, using the conventions of formal clothing to create moments of unexpected exposure.
This relationship has become an important characteristic of his work. Rather than separating elegance from sensuality, Davis allows the two to coexist, using precision to heighten the effect of the body rather than diminish it.
Solarisation
The influence of Lee Miller extended into the collection’s colour palette and textile choices. Davis drew on photographs she produced during her time in Egypt, responding to their atmosphere through dry-feeling fabrics and colours associated with sun, sand and mineral surfaces.
Cotton-linen blends, viscose and silk appeared in subdued shades, creating a material contrast with the collection’s more reflective rubber and leather pieces. The palette included neutral and earthy tones, although saturated colour remained important in selected looks.
This combination allowed Davis to explore different qualities of light through clothing. Matte surfaces absorbed it, while rubber and glossy leather reflected it more directly. Sheer fabrics produced another effect, allowing the underlying construction or body to remain partially visible.
Towards the end of the show, abstract patterns suggested the movement of sand rather than a literal representation of desert landscapes. Leather pieces with Gancini fastenings sometimes featured cracked or weathered finishes, introducing surfaces that appeared affected by heat and exposure.
These details demonstrated Davis’s interest in translating a visual reference into fabric rather than reproducing it as a decorative motif. The relationship with Miller’s photography could be understood through texture, colour and the behaviour of light, giving the collection a more complex connection to its historical sources.
The final evening looks extended this approach through sequins and reflective embellishment. Their surfaces recalled the experimental treatment of light associated with Miller and Man Ray, while introducing a more celebratory dimension to the collection.
There was a notable progression from the controlled structure of the opening tailoring to the movement and luminosity of the final garments. Rather than abandoning the collection’s earlier concerns, the eveningwear explored them through different materials, allowing light and motion to replace some of the rigidity established at the beginning.
Archival experiments
The collection’s historical references were not limited to the 1940s wardrobe. One of its most important starting points was Salvatore Ferragamo’s Invisible Sandal, created in 1947, a design that demonstrated the founder’s willingness to combine traditional shoemaking with unconventional materials and construction.
The original sandal used a transparent nylon monofilament upper and a distinctive F-shaped wedge, creating the impression that the foot was supported by almost invisible elements. Its construction reflected Ferragamo’s interest in engineering and the possibilities of new materials, qualities that helped distinguish his footwear from more conventional designs.
Davis returned to this example not simply to reproduce an archival shoe, but to explore its underlying principles. The relationship between visibility and structure, particularly the idea of making a supporting element appear almost absent, informed new interpretations of pumps, wedges, sandals and slingbacks.
The F-shaped construction was reworked into contemporary forms, sometimes using contrasting materials to emphasise the sculptural qualities of the heel. These designs connected the collection’s interest in visual illusion with the technical heritage of the house.
Other familiar Ferragamo elements were reconsidered through similarly precise interventions. The Vara pump’s characteristic bow was streamlined into a more angular, folded form, replacing some of its traditional softness with a sharper graphic expression.
Accessories continued this interest in proportion and material. The Cara bag appeared in different fabrications, while the Hug bag was presented in revised dimensions. Their presence reinforced the importance of leather goods within Davis’s wider design vocabulary, although the most compelling historical connection remained the footwear.
Ferragamo’s heritage is particularly useful to a designer interested in the relationship between form and function. Salvatore Ferragamo approached shoemaking through technical experimentation, studying the anatomy of the foot and developing unusual constructions intended to combine comfort, stability and visual invention.
Davis’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection suggests an understanding of that legacy extending beyond recognisable archival shapes. His use of rubber, transparent textiles and unconventional fastenings reflects a similar curiosity about materials and their possibilities, even when the resulting garments belong to a very different aesthetic.
Italian codes
The idea of Italian elegance has never belonged to a single silhouette. It encompasses the relaxed sophistication associated with certain traditions of tailoring, the sensuality of close-fitting garments, the refinement of exceptional materials and a willingness to combine formal craftsmanship with a more expressive approach to dress.
Davis’s work at Ferragamo draws on several of these qualities without treating them as fixed conventions. His clothes frequently possess the precision associated with Italian luxury, but their proportions and materials introduce a more contemporary understanding of elegance.
Spring/Summer 2027 made that relationship particularly apparent. The collection’s tailoring relied on clear construction and controlled silhouettes, while the introduction of rubber, leather and sheer fabrics challenged the expected behaviour of familiar garments. Sensuality was present throughout, although it emerged through material and proportion as often as through direct exposure.
The historical references were equally important. Davis has repeatedly returned to the early and middle decades of the twentieth century, examining periods in which fashion responded to changing social circumstances and new possibilities in design. For Spring/Summer 2026, he explored the cultural exchanges and stylistic developments of the 1920s, including the influence of the Harlem Renaissance and the imagery of early Hollywood. His subsequent work continued that historical curiosity, while the Spring/Summer 2027 collection moved towards the structured wardrobes of the 1940s.
This continuity suggests a developing design language rather than a sequence of unrelated period references. Davis is interested in the relationship between clothing and social identity, particularly the ways silhouettes can communicate expectations surrounding femininity, formality and freedom.
His interpretation of Ferragamo also avoids relying exclusively on the most familiar visual markers of Italian luxury. Instead of treating elegance as a matter of polished surfaces and conventional sophistication, he explores its relationship with physicality, experimentation and historical context.
The collection was not without tensions. Some of its more provocative materials risked drawing attention away from the subtleties of the tailoring, while the variety of historical and artistic references required considerable explanation to become fully legible. Yet these complexities also revealed the ambition of Davis’s approach, which depends on bringing different ideas into contact rather than maintaining a perfectly uniform aesthetic.
Ferragamo’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection offered a particularly clear expression of the designer’s interests. The historical silhouettes provided a disciplined framework, the experimental materials introduced sensuality and the references to photography complicated the relationship between clothing and the body. Together, these elements produced an interpretation of Italian elegance that remained recognisable through its precision while becoming less predictable in its expression.
For Davis, the enduring relevance of Ferragamo’s heritage appears to lie in its capacity for experimentation. The founder’s most inventive designs were not significant simply because they were beautiful, but because they reconsidered how materials and construction could shape the experience of wearing a shoe. Spring/Summer 2027 extended that curiosity into clothing, suggesting that elegance remains most interesting when its familiar conventions are open to reconsideration.
May