Maximilian Davis graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2017 and worked as an assistant at Wales Bonner before launching his label in 2020, freelancing in parallel for Mowalola, Asai, and Supriya Lele. The shaping post was a junior role at Grace Wales Bonner, the 2016 LVMH Prize winner, where the grammar of restraint, narrow tailoring, and West Indian reference points settled into his hand.

Davis’ own label, launched in 2020 inside Lulu Kennedy’s talent incubator Fashion East, drew a thin line through sliced jersey, suede trench and napa cropped jackets, and equestrian-cut trousers, sensual yet pared back to the seam.

In March 2022, Salvatore Ferragamo named Davis creative director, the first major appointment of incoming chief executive Marco Gobbetti, who joined from Burberry in January after earlier CEO posts at Givenchy and Celine. The spring-summer 2023 debut in Milan stacked second-skin tank dresses, micro shorts, glossy leather, liquid silk and layers of organza, and suede sandals against a new shade of Ferragamo red, designed specifically by Pantone.

The collection placed Davis near the Phoebe Philo Celine lineage and the post-Helmut Lang school of stripped sensuality, and its sensual designs in sheer fabrics have been worn by high-profile figures such as Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Dua Lipa, with a Drapers 30 Under 30 listing following in 2024.

Davis had withdrawn from the LVMH Prize semifinalist shortlist weeks before the Ferragamo announcement and shelved his namesake label to take the Florence job.

Davis remains creative director at Ferragamo, succeeding Paul Andrew, who exited the Florentine label as part of a major shakeup that included the stepping down of board chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo. Subsequent collections kept the Hollywood archive of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe in view through Vara hardware, crystal scatter, and the relaunched bag silhouettes, while the colorway held to red, cream, and tobacco.

The chapter argues that a heritage Italian house, family-controlled and shoe-led, can be rewritten by a London-trained designer working in the idiom of contemporary Black elegance.