The Max Mara spring summer 2026 show unfurled with a rare duality: restrained in silhouette yet extravagant in gesture. It was a show of precise tailoring interrupted by unexpected flares of whimsy – like the shoulder of a trench coat blossoming into a sculptural corona, or the hip of a pencil skirt haloed in gauze, as though the sea itself had traced its form.

The house found its muse in Madame de Pompadour, that emblem of Rococo individualism, and it shows. There’s an air of irreverence here – organza skirts made of hundreds of cut and folded fragments, as if petals of a bloom from some hothouse of the imagination. Colours, too, were whispers, almost spectral. Powder-soft, elusive shades that called to mind Watteau pastels and porcelain figurines, an echo of salons gilded in gilt and wit.

But beneath this confection is an insistence on pragmatism. Harness straps, elastic belts, and sharply grounded jackets reminded us that Max Mara’s strength is not lost to fantasy. There’s rigor beneath the froth – trousers slung low and blazers cut with exacting precision, balancing the drift of silk and organza. The Rococo flirtation is tempered by an edge of modern cool, an undercurrent of rationality.

It is this balance that makes the collection sing. Rococo was, as Novala Takemoto once mused, punk before punk: a refusal of virtue in favour of pleasure. Max Mara translates that spirit without descending into costume. Instead, it’s play – delicate prints recalling cabinets of curiosities, fauna and flora of land, sea, and air layering themselves across sheer organza like pressed specimens. Strength in fragility, power in playfulness.

Pompadour’s influence lingers – a woman of her own making, a patron of artistry, a supporter of enlightenment ideals – and Max Mara’s women too stride into rooms with that same command. Max Mara spring summer 2026 doesn’t simply nod to Rococo, it sharpens it into the now: elegance charged with wit, fantasy laced with structure, lightness given force.

Want to see more? Here are all the highlights from Milan Fashion Week so far.