[ STYLE FILE ]
As president of Inter-World Health & Beauty Inc., Tomomi Akasu needs to look good without spending a lot of time worrying about wardrobe. Max Mara offers unerring styles for work and play. She's wearing a summery turquoise knit top ($260) paired with 100 percent silk drawstring pant ($295).
In Max We Trust
Max Mara's founder Achille Maramotti might be labeled an oddity in the clothing business, as a designer leery of fashion.
He was a lawyer before turning dressmaker, and his eye for classics led him to describe fashion as "dangerous" to those who could spend a lifetime chasing trends without ever gaining a sense of style.
The result: His empire, founded in 1951, encompasses a string of international boutiques that deliver unerring style for those too busy changing the world to worry their pretty little heads about what's in and what's out. Classicism is always in.
Max Mara opened at Ala Moana Center in fall 1998 and celebrated the opening of its 2186 Kalakaua Ave. boutique in Waikiki with a private reception this morning.
The site at the corner of Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street was formerly home to a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant, but all traces of the fast-food restaurant are gone, replaced by a sleek marble-and-glass showcase for luxe cashmere sweaters, romantic ruffled dresses and the classic coats Max Mara is known for.
Downstairs, shoppers will find summer's playful fairy-tale runway designs: silk skirts in flirty cascades of ruffles, paired with equally romantic and sheer tops, plus cropped vests, sweater sets and feminine dresses in orange-and-white polka dot prints or retro geometrics, at prices starting at about $190.
Upstairs are fall's introductions in colors of eggplant, cyclamen and metal.
Max Mara's Asia-inspired quilted silk and virgin wool jacket ($685) for fall, is paired with wool pant ($360).
The Italian company is noted for its luxurious and experimental fabrics. New to the Sportmax line are skirts of nylon woven with metal for a crinkly texture that stays scrunched where you want it to be. Also shown are coats made of suri alpaca and camel hair the color of iron.
"When customers come in, we have them touch the fabric and try it on, and they're amazed by how it falls and how it feels," said manager Debbie Baptist.
In spite of Honolulu's constant sunshine, it's always winter in some part of the world, and Max Mara has become the place for those headed for cooler climes.
"We cannot keep enough coats in stock," Baptist said.
According to Adriana Kyzuk, Max Mara's vice president of retail, the Ala Moana store will continue to serve a local clientele with lines geared toward the working girl, while the Waikiki boutique will feature more of the company's coats and runway designs.
Pieces at both stores are set up to make shopping easy for the consumer, with items easy to view at a glance, and coordinates grouped for a quick overview of happy marriages between skirts and sweaters, or jackets and pants.
All shopping should be this easy.
A retro-style pleated Sportmax dress ($490) is one of the many runway styles that will find its way into the new Max Mara boutique in Waikiki.
Max Mara is known for warm but lightweight coats. This one, worn by Tomomi Akasu at the new Waikiki boutique, is fashioned from camel hair, with a beaver fur collar ($1,835).
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