The model roaming the floor at the Max Mara store on Madison Avenue during their Atelier coat collection presentation cut a figure that was both both Ladies-Who-Lunch and Byzantine. She wore a trapeze camel cashmere coat over a slim fur vest, with a jeweled collar tied on top. It was a look that was both simple and dramatic, a sensibility that carries through the capsule collection of twenty-four coats. Each piece is in a neutral color (camel, charcoal), crafted from luxurious fabrics, cut in simple profiles, and enhanced with dramatic details. And each one feels fresh and also timeless, as if it had been imagined a long time ago.
It’s fitting because Max Mara practically invented the contemporary camel coat for women. Their 101801 design from 1981, a loose, double-breasted overcoat with long, hand-stitched lapels was the first of its kind for women. On their website the Milanese fashion house illustrates how the coat can be styled in different ways (left open in front, belted, with the sleeves folded back) for radically different looks. My favorite has got to be a sporty look called Denim Remix, that gives me a fit of 80’s nostalgia. Today the camel coat is one of those key pieces, like a black v-neck pullover, that every grown-up lady has got to have. My own camel coat is a secondhand vicuna with three-quarter-length sleeves and a gold lining that I purchased in college to wear, ironically, over torn jeans and Doc Martens. When I wear it now, unironically, over businesslike skirts, the coat’s rich color and fabric automatically make me feel more glamorous. That gets at the appeal of camel, and of fashion itself.