Maximilian Davis continues to make the Ferragamo archive feel less like history and more like a working vocabulary.
For Spring 2027, the designer turned his attention to the 1940s, taking the era’s uniforms, workwear and carefully constructed silhouettes and stripping away some of their formality. What emerged in Milan was a collection built around control and freedom: sharply considered clothes that gradually became softer, more revealing and increasingly sensual.
LOOKING BACK WITHOUT GETTING STUCK THERE
The collection was inspired in part by women of the 1940s who were beginning to take greater ownership of their careers, travels and public identities.
Photographer Lee Miller became an important reference. Her life moved between modeling, Surrealism, photography, Egypt and eventually wartime photojournalism. Davis was especially interested in women who were no longer simply the subjects of images but were beginning to create those images—and their own narratives.
That sense of independence informed the clothes. Uniforms and workwear appeared throughout the collection, but Davis avoided turning the runway into a literal historical exercise. Instead, he took recognizable details from the period and changed their proportions for today.
THE WAIST TAKES CENTER STAGE
One of the clearest ideas was the return of the defined waist.
Belts appeared repeatedly, sometimes doubled, pulling coats, jackets and dresses close to the body. Oversized pockets referenced military and utility clothing, while shoulders were softened and rounded rather than recreated with the heavier structure typically associated with 1940s fashion.
The contrast was important. Ferragamo could look strict from a distance, but up close, the collection told another story. Transparent fabrics exposed the construction underneath tailoring. Silk moved freely around the body. Leather appeared polished, supple and occasionally provocative. Translucent materials transformed familiar garments like trenches and dresses into something far more unexpected.
Davis was working with the codes of propriety while quietly pulling them apart.
FROM THE DESERT TO MILAN
Lee Miller’s years in Egypt also influenced the collection.
That reference appeared through safari-inspired pieces, earthy colors and utilitarian clothing that seemed prepared for movement rather than ceremony.
Chocolate brown, olive, beige and sun-washed tones gave much of the collection a grounded quality. Leather jackets, safari shirts, streamlined skirts and generous trousers balanced the more delicate pieces. It gave the runway an interesting tension: part uniform, part expedition wardrobe and part evening fantasy.
FERRAGAMO LOOKS BACK AT ITS SHOES
The house’s footwear history remained central.
Salvatore Ferragamo introduced his famous F-shaped wedge in 1947, and Davis revisited that design language for Spring 2027. Curved heels, sandals and slingbacks transformed an archival idea into contemporary footwear.
The Vara bow was also reconsidered, while menswear introduced polished double monkstraps and softer leather slippers. Rather than simply reproducing recognizable archive pieces, Davis used their construction as a starting point.
That distinction matters. Ferragamo has one of fashion’s richest footwear histories, but Spring 2027 showed how the archive can remain relevant without becoming nostalgic.
ACCESSORIES CONTINUE THE STORY
The Cara Bag returned in seasonal leather and suede treatments, while the Hug Bag appeared in a newly proportioned East-West shape.
Those accessories connected the experimental runway pieces with the larger Ferragamo wardrobe Davis has been developing since arriving at the house. Across tailoring, leather goods and footwear, the collection demonstrated a clearer sense of what modern Ferragamo can look like. It can be refined without feeling conservative.
Sensual without becoming obvious. Historical without looking backward. For Spring 2027, Maximilian Davis took the structure of another era and loosened it just enough to make it belong to this one.