Scandinavian Nu Disco meets Vivaldi
In mid-century Sweden, the Slöjdföreningen coached fledgling couples setting up house. Spreading the credo that beauty is honesty they laid down the rules; a linoleum floor should look like linoleum, not stone; the construction of an armchair should be clearly expressed, not hidden beneath extraneous upholstery; superfluous decoration should be shunned.
Not that the strict Swedish design canon produced a nation of cold ascetics; to wit Ingrid Bergman and Anita Ekberg. Their frosty looks combined with utterly Italianate temperaments inspire Max Mara to recast the Milanese sartorial tradition with a Nordic spin. The mood is captured by Johnny Dynell, whose soundtrack - Vivaldi set to a Scandinavian dance beat -pulses through the Palazzo Del Senato's restrained neoclassical colonnades.
