Thinking of Max Mara’s early days in terms of today’s world — with its fast-fashion brands, online shopping, instant global visibility and gratification — is an effort, but those first steps in fashion in the Fifties are what have made the Italian company the $1.65 billion powerhouse it is today.
“It’s difficult for young people now to imagine fashion that is not for daily use, but until the Second World War, fashion was for the elite. It was ready-to-wear that made it more popular,” said Luigi Maramotti, chairman of Max Mara s.r.l. and a son of the founder, Achille Maramotti, referring to an era when women turned to dressmakers for clothes.
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Tall, well-groomed and soft-spoken, Maramotti credits his father for “marking and defining” Italian fashion “in an indelible way, as he permanently brought creativity and accessibility” to the industry. Through Achille’s work, Max Mara has become “part of the history of ready-to-wear.”
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According to the executive, his father was “a pioneer — not only did he industrialize the production process, but he triggered creativity through the industrial process. This was a true innovation.”
Achille Maramotti founded Maramotti Confezioni in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1951 and launched the Max Mara brand four years later. His goal was to offer high-end designs through top industrial processes, and he initially specialized in the production of coats, using innovative industrial tailoring techniques.
Though he remained group chairman, in the early Nineties, Maramotti passed the torch to his three children: Luigi and Ignazio Maramotti, chairman of Max Mara s.r.l. and chairman of Max Mara Fashion Group s.r.l., respectively, and Maria Ludovica Maramotti, chairman of the group’s Manifatture del Nord s.r.l.
Since Achille Maramotti’s death in 2005, the tightly knit family has worked to expand the company in a low-profile way, preserving the founder’s legacy.
“We have strong cultural roots tied to the territory and to the family,” said Luigi Maramotti. “We share this family culture and the culture of work, transmitted from our father.”
For his father, “knowledge and skills were to be found in work, which is the backbone of life,” he said. “People find their fate working. A life of work is reflected in one’s family and vice versa.”
This positive culture, he said, goes back to his father’s great-grandmother Marina Rinaldi, a “pragmatic” seamstress who managed an elegant dressmaking shop in the mid-19th century and taught Achille to enjoy work. “My father’s mantra was always enjoy yourself while working. He advised us against any job that we would not enjoy — otherwise we were sure to fail,” said Maramotti. “A constant and deep satisfaction stems from intellectual and professional challenges.”
When asked if he ever felt the need to carve out a different path for himself, Maramotti said he felt he was “lucky, with many passions and interests. I am moved by anthropological curiosity and a natural inclination to observe.”
Based on these traits, his aim is always to experiment in different ways. “It’s funny, when I was in the Army, I was part of the cavalry guide unit, who explore the territory before a battle….I feel this inclination to explore [in life as well as] in fashion,” he said.
This being Maramotti, however, fashion is not merely an exploration of skirt lengths and color palettes but of social changes, lifestyles and constant observation to foresee changes.
“Who needs gambling?” he joked. “We buy hundreds of meters of fabric in advance. This is a gamble. We live in an adrenaline-driven dimension, in continuous anxiety, in research and challenges.”
In discussing the Internet, which he calls the “biggest invention of the 20th century,” Maramotti said it has overturned the lives of individuals, and mused that it is difficult to forecast its long-term effects.
“We are interested in working with the Internet, but we are artisans, we work directly with the product,” said Maramotti, whose group controls 2,279 stores.
He also noted that there is “a rational and functional component in shopping, but that’s limited. I believe it is the intangible part — the emotion and desire — that motivates the purchase. There is a need for this more abstract dimension and for personal interaction with the salesperson.”
Stores are like theaters, he added — places where a story is told. “People are always looking for a story. There is a story in a purchase and if there is a story behind it that is true and well narrated, it works. [E-tailing] does not imply a story,” he remarked.
But Max Mara is also a story of success, a 1.22 billion euro ($1.65 billion) business, developed by a group of 5,144 employees around the world. It counts more than 10,000 multibrand stores. In China, the group has a network of 245 sales points opened in less than 10 years.
The family controls the group, and expansion is self-financed. And this suits Maramotti just fine. A public listing, acquiring other brands or surrendering control to outside investors is not on his agenda.
“The financial dimension is an element that can represent a distraction. Those who need fresh capital to develop their business might turn to the world of finance, and there’s nothing wrong there,” he said. “But we are self-financed and able to support our own growth through rigorous development.”
His recipe going forward is simple: “Resist the shortcuts the world offers and maintain our values of intellectual rigor.”