I was raised observing the ease of long gowns and buttoned shirts worn by elder members at my family gatherings, of dressing up for church, and my father coming to school recitals still in his suit from work. The Sunday’s Best and long day-dresses that shaped my perception of Jamaican style, inherited from my dad and grandmother, differ from the beaded vacation braids and tie-dye shirts one donned at school after coming back from their tropical winter vacation in the 2000s. Rather, it’s an understanding of Jamaican culture, Caribbean heritage, as one of identity and longevity, not so much a temporary vacation – a symbol of temporary escape from the ‘machine’. Years later and all grown up, I have witnessed the emergence of designers such as Grace Wales Bonner and Martine Rose, who boldly challenge the stereotypical representations of vacation wear and rebellious tonalities that are often associated with Caribbean style; opening space for Caribbean fashion to be valued with a more nuanced perspective. Now, the current creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, Maximilian Davis, joins the already iconic collective of designers in the push for luxury fashion to recognize Caribbean dress as more than just a trend but rather as emblematic of rich cultural heritage and identity.
I feel a likeness to the Manchester-raised creative director – although perhaps that’s a bit of wishful thinking. Both of our grandmothers moved from the Caribbean to their respective countries to become nurses. Both of our grandmothers knew how to sew and offered to teach us (I declined; thankfully, Davis did not). Both of us grew up watching our Caribbean fathers leave for work every morning in a suit and tie. Both of us seem to believe that the renowned tailoring synonymous with the Ferragamo name feels perfectly in tune with Caribbean style and dress. It is easy to marry the two. As Davis has expressed, there’s an effortless blend between coveted Italian tailoring and Caribbean style. A shared ethos between Italian and Caribbean culture lies in the ability to live life at your own pace, in your own time.
The complex and distinct heritage across the Caribbean is often reduced through a European gaze, into a singular exoticized perception. The history of Colonialism and revolution cannot be separated from the intent and influence of Caribbean style. The diversity that exists across the various countries and heritages in the Caribbean leads to an understanding of Caribbean dress as intricate. There is a freeness that Caribbean design brings to the luxury market, a resourcefulness. Even if you don’t own luxury couture, you put something together. There is religious influence, but also a culture of showing up for your family, a sense of respect. Like my father still insisting on us slipping on A-line dresses and Mary Janes, even though the Hillsong takeover had already ushered in a new culture of ripped denim jeans at Sunday service. His family was not going to leave the house dressed like that.
In his two years with the fashion house, Davis has remained faithful to Ferragamo’s narrative, drawing inspiration from the archives as a starting point. He has also introduced innovations. His SS24 collection serves as a true testament to the amalgamation of traditional styling codes and the influences of Davis’ culture. There’s a sense of effortlessness that Davis frequently acknowledges in his work. Drawing from the ease he observed in his family’s approach to life and dress, Davis’ SS24 collection subbed in lightweight, airy fabrics in place of structured garments, achieving a balance between relaxed silhouettes and sophisticated design. In this collection, Davis reintroduced archived Ferragamo pieces with new interpretations of material and design. A sense of “naturalness” infused this season’s selection of materials, with wood, corn, and horn used to craft the shoe and applique collection.
Since his debut with his eponymous label, Trinidadian Carnival has played a significant role in how he associates sexiness with fashion. For Davis, sexiness cannot be standardized by silhouettes or material. As he stated in 2020 for AnOther Magazine, “It’s about putting whatever you have on, and making it work. You want to be free and that celebration of freedom but translating that through the clothing and the way that they dress. Because that brings out the confidence and the sexiness.” Instead of allowing the European gaze to define Caribbean sexiness, he is reappropriating it. The relaxed fabrics of this season create fluid movement along the body, and the plunging necklines and undone top buttons on the suit jackets that graced the runway convey that sense of freedom and confidence that inspires Davis’ interpretation of sexiness in design.
This stands in stark contrast to the influence and appropriation of Rastafari culture that pervaded the early 2000s and 2010s. The commercialized dissection and cheapening of Caribbean heritage, misappropriating Rastafarian values—a spirituality born out of opposition to oppression and pursuance of freedom—into mere sensual and nonconformist aesthetics. The meaningful colours and handwoven designs, originally chosen to defy the white Eurocentric gaze, become significantly cheapened in luxury design.
In the same tone as the middle-aged white man responding, “No worries mon” or commenting about how insanely sexy, how insanely spicy Caribbean women are when I’ve disclosed my ethnicity, the luxury market has desired—voraciously—the pieces, not the people. There’s no desire for reverence towards the spirituality found in the Rastafari religion or the rich, individualized heritage across the Caribbean diaspora. From the Dior SS04 rasta collection to the L.A.M.B. SS06 and the Tommy Hilfiger SS16, the wave of tropical and rasta-inspired looks that swept the early 2000s and 2010s lacked a full understanding of Caribbean heritage. While these collections are iconic in their own right (see Rihanna donning the Tommy dress in her “Work” music video or my own personal saved pieces from the Dior Rasta collection on the ReelReel), they also contributed to setting limitations on the place Caribbean people and their culture have in fashion.
Davis crediting Caribbean influences for the transformation that Ferragamo has undergone challenges consumers to conceptualize Caribbean style as complex and elegant. What Davis, alongside the predecessors of Caribbean designers, has done is demand respect for Caribbean fashion as worthy of being an identity in and of itself. Davis’ work challenges where we fit into markets for tailored fashion.
In only his second year at the helm of Ferragamo, Davis has made significant contributions to the current collective of Caribbean designers who are showing the world that Caribbean influence on fashion and brand identity can be more than simply a play on resort wear or pulled apart to create a rebellious tone on a line. Caribbean dress, culture, and people have the capacity to build a brand and offer a creative vision that is utterly luxurious.
Hannah Verina White is a Montreal and Toronto based writer. She has a deep love for the melodramatic and nostalgic, both of which influence the way she writes and the subjects she chooses to write about.