When it comes to clothing shopping, Vancouver has certain styles on lock.
There are so many stores to go to for athleisure that it’s almost comical, vintage spots are popping up faster than you can say “Do you have any Carhartt?,” and the biggest names in luxury can all be found here. But for Harriet Guadagnuolo, there has long been a missing middle: a place to shop for quality, elegant, contemporary clothing in the intermediate price range.
Enter Marella and Max&Co. These two accessible-luxury womenswear brands are part of the Max Mara Fashion Group, and thanks to Guadagnuolo and her team, their first-ever North American stores have just opened in downtown Vancouver.
“As a buyer, I felt that there was a real gap in the Vancouver market in terms of an elevated, sophisticated, polished look in the contemporary price point,” Guadagnuolo says. “We have so many offerings in athleisure and sportier offerings—but when it comes to that European, sophisticated look, we don’t have as much in Vancouver. So this was really our answer to that.”
Guadagnuolo is the vice-president of retail at Vancouver’s Vestis Fashion Group, which operates all of Metro Vancouver’s Max Mara and Weekend Max Mara boutiques. When a prime retail space opened up at Pacific Centre—directly across from the Max Mara boutique, no less—the team seized the opportunity to introduce Marella and Max&Co. to Vancouver shoppers. (Notably, both brands are already popular in other parts of the world, with strong retail presences in Europe and the Middle East.)
“Both brands really bring that element of elevated dressing with slightly different aesthetics,” Guadagnuolo explains, standing inside the Marella store on opening day. “They’re born out of the Max Mara design group, so they are backed in of that Italian design and really beautiful quality and many, many years of this very historic design house. So you have these very grounded designers and collections, and this is a little bit more of a contemporary take from them.”
And while both labels have their own design teams, they’re still based out of Max Mara Fashion Group headquarters in Reggio Emilia, near Milan. They also use many of the same fabrics, factories, and construction techniques as Max Mara and Weekend Max Mara—and uphold the same strict standards for quality.
On the Marella side, shoppers can expect to find pieces that are subtly feminine, exquisitely tailored, and refreshingly modern. The current spring/summer in-store offering reflects a refined sensibility: buttery-soft cashmere in Easter egg colours; luxurious knits in warm earth tones; and sultry structured blazers—some of which were designed in collaboration with supermodel Emily Ratajkowski.
“This is a really fun take on a night out,” Guadagnuolo says, holding up an Emily x Marella oversized cream blazer and matching mini skirt adorned with a giant rose. “It’s a really fresh look, and something that I don’t think we have here in Vancouver. Where do you find a sexy, cool suit like that? I haven’t really seen it.”
Next door at Max&Co. (because the Vestis team turned one large retail space into two distinct shops), things have a decidedly different feel. The Marella store’s soft cream and pink hues have been swapped out for bold pops of red—the brand’s signature colour—demonstrating the more playful, youthful aesthetic that lies within.
The clothing at Max&Co. takes its cues from street style, encompassing a panoply of bright colours, energetic prints, edgy shapes, and striking textures. A capsule collection with Italian stylist Lorenzo Posocco includes a dad hat embroidered with the words “DO NOT DISTURB” and a Matrix-esque black leather trench, while the regular seasonal offering has everything from trousers and tops in Max Mara’s famed scuba fabric to a wool-blend cardigan embroidered with rhinestone stars.
“This is something that Max&Co. does a lot: comfort fabrics in very elevated finishes,” Guadagnuolo explains, pulling a T-shirt dress off the rack. “This looks like a really elevated denim fabric, but in fact, it’s actually jersey. So it’s easy for a woman to put this on and go, ‘I can wear this all day. I can drive in this. I can go to a meeting and I’m not going to look wrinkled. I can travel in this and it’s not going to affect the look and feel.’ It’s so easy.”
That ease is a big part of the design ethos for both brands. Many pieces can be turned into matching top-to-bottom sets, allowing the wearer to take the guesswork out of dressing. Whether it’s a drapey monochrome look from Marella or a joyful mixed-pattern getup from Max&Co., the whole point is to help women look effortlessly good by making the act of getting dressed actually, well, effortless.
“There are all these different separates that you can put together to make dressing simple and easy,” Guadagnuolo says. “The idea behind this is really that it’s foolproof dressing.”
If that’s what can be found in Vancouver fashion’s missing middle, it’s about time it arrived.
