Untamed heroine

‍“Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry to her wild chasms”

‍Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 1847

“I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free.”

‍W uthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847

Sleek, self-assured and elegant, the heroine of Max Mara’s story encounters every situation with characteristic cool aplomb. Strict self-control has brought success, but she cannot contain her passions forever. She craves romance, deep and dramatic, the chiaroscuro romance of the Brontës.

She reads about a woman who would rather sleep rough on the bleak Yorkshire moors than spend the night under the roof of one whose moral position she could not condone. She reads about a tempestuous love as powerful as the shrieking winds that sweep across that bleak, elemental landscape. Though she’s more likely to be stalking the corridors of power in a smartly tailored suit than wandering through the heather and gorse in a nightgown, her new romantic mood calls for a new romantic style.

Max Mara blends the classic with a touch of neo-gothic chic and distinctly urban rusticity. Miss Eyre’s demure demeanour and Miss Catherine’s wild passion come into sharp focus as composure and strong will. The redingote: fitted through the body, cinched at the waist and full at the hem, it gets a tougher treatment with a detachable quilted lining and sleeves in leather or shearling. Cut off at the waist, the redingote becomes a full skirt, opening at the front to reveal rib-knit stockings and culottes. Antique britches inspire modern trousers with soft pleats at the knee and a broad waistband. The longer leg is emphasised by the shorter jacket, neatly tailored with an articulated sleeve head. The waistcoat returns, with a new shrunken proportion to wear under a jacket and as a country-style gilet to wear over a sharply cut coat. Coats take the lead; greatcoats with military overtones, squire-like frock coats, capes, generous enveloping clutch coats and robes-de-chambre, sometimes with knitted backs and sleeves.

Cascia is the name of a colour known only to Max Mara, and in its gradations from light to dark, it describes the stones and sky of the Brontës’ native Yorkshire. Dense double-face, lustrous drape and featherweight worsteds; with the caress of pure cashmere, our heroine confronts the most mundane duties with equanimity. Brontë country reawakens a taste for tweed, woven from berry reds, mossy greens and autumnal brackens, its rugged homespun aspect reveals a soft luxurious touch. Mouliné yarns are knitted into intricately shaped sweaters that echo the shapely Victorian bodice for a modern take on femininity. And when night falls, what does she wear? Coal black velvet for a gown with drama on an operatic scale or a boned bodice.

The Brontës’ work has never been out of print, and there have been numerous dramatisations; the newest W uthering Heights by Emerald Fennell will premiere next year. Their perennial popularity is no wonder. The sheltered sisters who grew up in an isolated parsonage seemed to know every corner of the labyrinthine human psyche; as for Max Mara’s heroine, it’s not hard to understand why women like her, who have focused for so long, and so doggedly on the prizes to be won through the exercise of cool logic, would inevitably succumb to the voice that comes from the heart.