MIRA MAKTABI PRESENTS WARDROBE 27
Mira Maktabi second collection, titled Wardrobe 27, reflects the wardrobe of the woman the designer aspires to become: easy and relaxed, unapologetically free and always very elegant. The garments appear simple, almost minimal, yet their construction is complex, allowing the silks and wools to fall and move freely while creating rounded draped shapes reminiscent of Maktabi’s Arabic heritage. Rounded silhouettes and long skirts that conceal the legs only to reveal them through subtle openings in a confident gesture return in this second collection, alongside her signature loop trousers: wide and comfortable, yet undeniably sensual and distinct.
The presence of gowns and evening wear comes as no surprise. Here too, Maktabi’s signature is unmistakable: dresses that appear modest from the front, covering the body almost entirely, reveal a bare back in a refined gesture of sensuality. These are gowns for the modern bride or for elegant women of any age attending her celebration.
The focus remains firmly on the materials. Holland & Sherry British wool, woven with black and deep chocolate-brown fibres, lightweight silk satin, and fluid viscose linings allow these deceptively simple dresses to feel like a second skin while appearing opulent in their refined elegance. Dresses are also cut in lightweight wool and finished with cheeky welt pockets that evoke the precision and ease of tailoring.
For this collection, Maktabi envisioned a mature, relaxed woman: a woman with nothing to prove, comfortable with her choices and deeply in love with her life. She may be 20 or 60, tall or petite, it does not matter. What defines her is the tranquil strength she carries when entering a room.
She wears a simple tank top in fine cream silk with a sporty back silhouette inspired by the designs of the late couturière Madame Grès, or its adapted dress version featuring the signature leg opening hole, that first brought attention to Maktabi’s Central Saint Martins MA graduate collection. And finally, the Mimma Shirt. Striking and classic yet remarkably different, originally conceived in cream micro-faille with a beige satin collar detail, it returns in a black version with cream silk.
On a recent trip to Lebanon, Maktabi spotted a luminous pistachio-gold silk dupion taffeta in a store in Beirut specialising in dead-stock fabrics from the late 1990s, and with it she created the perfect evening coat. Another Maktabi signature lies in colour, or rather, in what she calls “non-colours.” Browns, blacks, creams, and muted golds dominate the collection, punctuated this season by touches of pistachio and olive green, shades that feel almost daring within her restrained palette.
To describe both her collection and its muses, Mira Maktabi refers to a quote by author and physiologist Nicola Jane Hobbs: “Growing up, I never knew a relaxed woman. Successful women? Yes. Productive women? Plenty. Anxious and afraid and apologetic women? Heaps of them. But relaxed women? At ease women? Women who aren’t afraid to take up space in the world? Women who prioritise rest and pleasure and play? Women who give themselves unconditional permission to relax — without guilt, without apology, without feeling like they need to earn it? I’m not sure I’ve ever met a woman like that. But I would like to become one. I would like us all to become one.”
Words by Mimma Viglezio
Photography by Margherita Allievi
Modelled by Lan Dizayee
