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MAX&Co. is an international contemporary fashion brand within the Max Mara Fashion Group, created around a wardrobe that combines Italian design heritage with colour, versatility, individuality and a distinctly playful approach to getting dressed. The brand describes its purpose in terms of modern women and their changing lifestyles, while its current identity reworks familiar wardrobe ideas through bold energy, a rebellious edge and an instinctive mix-and-match attitude. Rather than treating fashion as a set of rigid rules, MAX&Co. has increasingly positioned personal style as something fluid, expressive and individual an idea summed up in the contemporary brand mantra, “Keep it cool.”
Understanding MAX&Co. begins with the history of the Max Mara Fashion Group and its roots in Reggio Emilia, northern Italy. The group’s own archive traces its tailoring heritage to 1850, when Marina Rinaldi, the great-grandmother of founder Achille Maramotti, ran an important dressmaking workshop in the city. Her granddaughter Giulia Fontanesi Maramotti later taught sewing and patternmaking and, from 1925, published technical works devoted to what the company describes as the “theory of cutting.”
Achille Maramotti brought that inherited knowledge into an industrial age. In 1951 he founded the company that became the foundation of Max Mara Fashion Group, pursuing the then-progressive idea that well-made, sophisticated women’s clothing could be produced through advanced industrial methods rather than being confined to traditional couture. That marriage of tailoring knowledge and organised ready-to-wear manufacturing became one of the defining principles of the wider group.
MAX&Co. emerged several decades later as the group continued to develop distinct fashion identities for different women and lifestyles. Max Mara Fashion Group’s official timeline records the creation of the MAX&Co. brand in 1985, while MAX&Co.’s present-day brand profiles and international retail communications generally use 1986 as its founding year. For publication purposes, the most accurate interpretation is therefore that MAX&Co. was created during 1985 and established commercially as a brand around 1986.
The label consequently inherited the wider group’s understanding of construction, fabric and coordinated dressing, but developed a noticeably younger and more spirited visual language of its own. Today, the Max Mara Fashion Group remains privately held and encompasses nine brands. Across the entire group, its international network extends to 105 countries, with more than 2,500 single-brand stores and over 10,000 multibrand points of sale.
MAX&Co.’s identity has always depended less on a single garment than on the possibilities created by combining pieces. The parent group describes it as offering modern women a “vibrant, stylish, versatile wardrobe,” and the idea of mixing rather than prescribing complete looks continues to shape the label’s character.
That philosophy has become particularly visible in the brand’s recent creative evolution. For Spring/Summer 2026, MAX&Co. framed its identity through the ideas of Curiosity, Courage and Community, accompanied by what the company calls an Enfant Terrible spirit. Classic and wearable silhouettes were approached with a sharper contemporary attitude, while flexibility between work, leisure, travel, polished tailoring and relaxed dressing remained central. Paloma Le Friant was introduced as a brand ambassador for this renewed chapter, with the campaign photographed by Grant James Thomas and styled by Lorenzo Posocco.
For Autumn/Winter 2026, “Keep it cool” remains an important expression of that outlook. Contemporary tailoring, layering, knitwear and different proportions are brought together in a way intended to make dressing personal rather than prescriptive. It is an approach consistent with MAX&Co.’s broader belief that style is most interesting when clothes can be interpreted differently by the person wearing them.
Outerwear and tailoring naturally remain important within a company descended from one of Italy’s great coat-making traditions, but the modern MAX&Co. wardrobe extends across dresses, denim, knitwear, shirts, trousers, jackets and accessories. The result is not simply a younger interpretation of Max Mara. MAX&Co. has developed its own visual language brighter, more playful and increasingly connected to contemporary art, music, graphic culture and collaborative design.
One of the clearest expressions of that independence is the &Co.llaboration project, a continuing series of capsule collections created with designers, stylists, artists and cultural names. The programme began its design partnerships with Margherita Maccapani Missoni and the Shall We? capsule, a collection built around liberated styling and the idea that familiar pieces could be worn in unexpected ways.
Since then, the project has become unusually broad. Nigerian-born British designer Duro Olowu created People, Places, Colour, bringing together stripes, florals, geometric patterns and the influence of Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri. MAX&Co.’s 2023 collaboration with Tamagotchi, Eat, Sleep, Repeat, translated the digital-pet phenomenon of the 1990s into pixel graphics, embroidery, knitwear, denim and accessories.
Anna Dello Russo’s De-Coated project took one of MAX&Co.’s most recognisable categories, the coat, and treated it as a modular object that could move towards blazer, dress, skirt or corset forms. Stylist Lorenzo Posocco, meanwhile, explored 1990s minimalism and the idea of a shared wardrobe in Found Family, creating pieces conceived around longevity, exchange and a sense of belonging.
Artist Pietro Terzini has become another recurring creative voice. His BLA BLA BLA collaboration transformed wardrobe staples through handwritten phrases and the artist’s characteristic humorous word art; the partnership subsequently continued through projects including Here We Go Again and 1-800 Gift Alert.
The collaborative format has also created space for younger experimental talent. Designer and Florania founder Flora Rabitti, recipient of the MAX&Co. Design for Change prize at the 2023 CNMI Fashion Trust awards, developed Circular Fighters. The 2024 capsule placed circularity at its centre and included pieces made with organic fabrics, recycled materials and leftover yarns, bringing Rabitti’s zero-waste and no-season thinking into dialogue with MAX&Co.’s archive.
More recently, MAX&Co. partnered with Los Angeles designer Sami Miró on Becoming Undone. Deconstructed tailoring, visible seams, exaggerated forms and raw edges gave the collection a deliberately unfinished character, mixing utility with femininity and continuing the brand’s interest in collaborators who reinterpret established wardrobe conventions rather than simply decorate them.
Together, these projects explain much of MAX&Co.’s contemporary personality. &Co.llaboration is not a single seasonal campaign; it functions as an evolving creative platform through which the brand can move between tailoring, illustration, pop nostalgia, art, street culture and experimental design while maintaining a recognisable core wardrobe.
MAX&Co.’s product universe has gradually expanded beyond its main womenswear collections.
Eyewear is one of its most established licensed categories. Italian eyewear specialist Marcolin began its exclusive global licensing relationship with MAX&Co. in 2020, covering the design, manufacture and distribution of sunglasses and optical frames. In February 2024, the companies announced an early renewal extending the partnership until 2030. The collections reflect the wider MAX&Co. vocabulary through strong shapes, colour and lightweight constructions.
Perfume became another significant extension in 2025. Working with Venetian fragrance company Mavive, MAX&Co. launched its first olfactory collection with three eaux de parfum: She Is a 10, Good Vibes Don’t Lie and Morning Can Wait. Pietro Terzini created the fragrance names, extending his relationship with the brand from clothing and graphics into fragrance storytelling.
The brand also operates MAX&Co. KID, a clothing and accessories collection for girls aged four to sixteen. Rather than functioning as an unrelated children’s label, the range adapts elements of the women’s wardrobe including coats, blazers, dresses, denim, knitwear and preppy references with an emphasis on comfort and practicality for younger wearers.
MAX&Co. is now distributed online and through more than 400 stores worldwide, giving the label an international presence while allowing individual markets to interpret its contemporary Italian identity locally.
One of its most important recent retail milestones came in London. On 15 May 2026, MAX&Co. officially opened its first standalone London flagship at 133 Regent Street. The approximately 245-square-metre or 2,637-square-foot store extends across two floors and was conceived as more than a conventional shop. Industrial materials, white parquet, metal gridwork and flashes of MAX&Co. red are joined by a dramatic red glass-and-resin staircase. Upstairs, flexible lighting, sound equipment and a Mario Bellini Camaleonda sofa allow the space to be adapted for events and community activities.
The opening is significant because it illustrates how MAX&Co. increasingly treats physical retail as an extension of its brand culture. Clothing remains central, but stores can also become places for conversation, collaboration and creative events a natural physical counterpart to the &Co.llaboration programme.
India became another major chapter in the brand’s international development. Reliance Brands Limited entered a long-term master franchise relationship with MAX&Co., and the first Indian store opened at Jio World Drive in Mumbai in 2026. The 112-square-metre boutique introduced the brand’s ready-to-wear, accessories and collaborative collections to the market, while Reliance has indicated a wider expansion strategy for key Indian metropolitan cities.
MAX&Co. also illustrates the continuing role of the Maramotti family within Max Mara Fashion Group. Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti has been identified as MAX&Co. Brand Divisional Director and a Max Mara Fashion Group board member, while Elia Maramotti serves as MAX&Co. Brand Director. Their involvement places members of the founder’s family directly within the continuing development of the contemporary label.
That continuity is noteworthy in modern international fashion. MAX&Co. can draw on the manufacturing culture, accumulated knowledge and long-term perspective of a privately held Italian group while developing an identity that is deliberately more experimental, collaborative and responsive to contemporary culture.
MAX&Co. has also used individual creative projects to explore more responsible approaches to fashion. Circular Fighters is the clearest brand-specific example, bringing regenerated, recovered, organic and recycled materials into a capsule expressly centred on circular thinking.
At the group level, Max Mara Fashion Group announced a fur-free policy in August 2024, applying it to its future collections and, by extension, to the wider portfolio, which includes MAX&Co.
These initiatives are best understood as specific developments rather than grounds for making sweeping sustainability claims. What can be documented is a growing willingness to explore circular design through collaboration and to adopt group-wide material policies as fashion expectations continue to evolve.
Approaching four decades as an international label, MAX&Co. occupies a distinctive place within the Max Mara Fashion Group. The foundation is recognisably Italian: an understanding of tailoring, fabric, outerwear and the practical architecture of a woman’s wardrobe. Yet the character built on that foundation is unmistakably its own.
Colour sits comfortably beside tailoring. Pop culture can share space with traditional wardrobe pieces. A coat can become an experiment in modular design; a Tamagotchi can become a fashion motif; the handwriting of a contemporary artist can move from knitwear to perfume; and a shop can double as a cultural meeting place.
That ability to move between consistency and curiosity is central to MAX&Co.’s appeal. Its recent collections, collaborations, fragrances, eyewear projects and new flagships all point towards a brand interested not simply in telling women what to wear, but in giving them pieces with which to create their own answer.
In that sense, “Keep it cool” is more than an advertising phrase. It captures the increasingly clear philosophy of MAX&Co.: strong clothes, a sense of humour, freedom in styling, and enough confidence to let individuality do the rest.
FOUR PAWS International. (2024, August 6). Max Mara Fashion Group announces to go fur-free. FOUR PAWS International
FashionUnited. (2026, May 18). Max&Co. opens London flagship with a new immersive vision. FashionUnited
Indian Retailer Bureau. (2026, May 29). MAX&Co. opens first India store in Mumbai. Indian Retailer
Marcolin. (2024, February 2). Marcolin and MAX&Co. together until 2030. Marcolin press release
Mavive. (n.d.). MAX&Co. and Mavive sign an international licensing and distribution agreement for the first fragrance collection. Mavive
Max Mara Fashion Group. (n.d.). Brands. Max Mara Fashion Group – Brands
Max Mara Fashion Group. (n.d.). Overview. Max Mara Fashion Group – Overview
Max Mara Fashion Group. (2024, October 15). MAX&Co. announces its new &Co.llaboration with Florania: Circular Fighters. Max Mara Fashion Group
Max Mara Fashion Group. (2025, September 2). MAX&Co. enters the world of fragrance! Max Mara Fashion Group
Max Mara Fashion Group. (2026, January 13). The SS26 collection embodies the new identity of MAX&Co. with an exceptional ambassador: Paloma LeFriant. Max Mara Fashion Group
MAX&Co. (n.d.). &Co.llaboration with Sami Miró: Becoming Undone. MAX&Co. – Becoming Undone
MAX&Co. (n.d.). Discover our &Co.llaborations. MAX&Co. – &Co.llaborations archive
MAX&Co. (n.d.). Girls 4–16 years clothing and accessories: MAX&Co. KID. MAX&Co. KID
Regent Street. (n.d.). MAX&Co. Regent Street – MAX&Co.
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