Ferragamo has always had sensuality somewhere inside it. Shoes made to follow the body, silk, precise tailoring and almost a century of Italian glamour are hardly the ingredients of a conservative house. Under Maximilian Davis, that sensuality is becoming much harder to miss.

For Spring/Summer 2026, Davis goes back to the decade in which Ferragamo was born. But his 1920s are not an exercise in dressing people like they have walked out of a period film. He is interested in what made the decade feel radical in the first place: freedom, experimentation and people using clothes to become someone different.

THE 1920S WITHOUT THE COSTUME

The references are specific. Ferragamo points to a 1925 photograph of silent-film actor Lola Todd dressed in leopard, alongside the Harlem Renaissance and the period's Africana movement. Zoot suits, dropped waists, scarf-like sashes and fringed surfaces appear throughout the collection, but Davis dismantles the references before putting them back into a contemporary wardrobe.

That keeps the history from becoming nostalgic. Dresses fall away from the body instead of forcing it into place, tailoring stretches and softens, and long pieces of fabric move around otherwise controlled silhouettes. The spirit is recognisably 1920s without requiring anyone to look as though they are attending a themed party.

THE MEN LOOK GOOD TOO

Some of the strongest ideas come through the menswear. Davis takes the volume and attitude associated with zoot suits and translates them into broad jackets, fluid trousers and tailoring wrapped with long scarf sashes. Shirts open across the chest and formal pieces lose some of the stiffness usually expected from them.

It is sexy without needing to become obvious about it. The attraction comes from the way the clothes move and expose the body almost accidentally: a jacket slipping open, fabric falling from the waist or a trouser settling exactly where it should. Davis understands that sensuality does not always require showing more.

FERRAGAMO DOESN'T NEED TO SHOUT

That restraint is important because Ferragamo is not trying to become a completely different house. The craftsmanship remains serious even when the styling becomes more relaxed, and Davis continues to use the archive as a starting point rather than something that dictates the final result.

This is where he has found an increasingly convincing space for Ferragamo. The house can be polished without looking conservative, historical without feeling old and sensual without turning itself into a caricature of Italian glamour.

Ferragamo was never missing the ingredients. Maximilian Davis is just making them much harder to ignore.