Max Mara's Quiet Milan Show, and the Tuscan Workshops That Would Make It

Max Mara's show at Milan fashion week offered well-cut coats, sturdy block-heeled boots, crisp white shirts and capacious suede handbags, according to the Guardian's fashion desk, which noted what the collection deliberately did not have: shock value. The report describes the house's theme as the "nonconformist glamour" of Amelia Earhart and other pioneers — chore jackets and loose-fit trousers among the pieces.

The Guardian's account is a useful corrective to the idea that Milan week runs on provocation. A collection built on outerwear, boots and leather bags is a collection built on the categories in which Italian manufacturing is genuinely competitive, and which foreign buyers assess on cut and material rather than on spectacle.

Tuscany's stake in that is old and specific. The region's leather and footwear districts have supplied the luxury houses for decades, and the suede handbag on a Milan runway is the visible end of a supply chain that runs through the Arno valley.