A Weekend with an Artist

A Weekend with an Artist

For Spring/Summer 2026, the Weekend Max Mara capsule collection explores the creative  nature of this unique project from a new perspective – through the eyes of five globally  renowned artists who reinterpret a house icon: the trench coat. 

In that vein, the signature Canasta trench served as a blank canvas for artists Victoria Kosheleva,  Paola Pivi, Tschabalala Self, Tai Shani, and Shafei Xia, each of whom created an “artist’s trench,”  true hero pieces that embody their distinctive vision, technique, and creative flair.  

The artists were selected by Francesco Bonami, a renowned art critic, curator, and writer, who  has been the director of the Venice Biennale, the curator of the Whitney Biennial of American  Art, and is now the artistic director of BYArtmatters in Hangzhou and a member of the Gagosian  Gallery board. Distinction, a unique visual language, and generational balance were the key  factors in selecting the artists, who were chosen for their freedom of expression and their ability  to escape trends and market temptations.  

“The goal was to offer, through an iconic garment, the opportunity for individual and personal  expression, which is fundamental to any aspect of fashion that seeks to provide a unique  perspective to its audience,” says Francesco Bonami. 

Victoria Kosheleva, who merges contemporary and classical imagery in what she describes as  "cyber expressionism," worked directly on a prototype, painting various motifs that Weekend  Max Mara later reproduced as a print. For Kosheleva, a trench coat is not just a garment—it’s  almost like a curtain or a stage costume where checkerboard squares, an ornate eye, intricate  swirls, and flowers coexist harmoniously. The idea emerged from her ongoing reflections on  theatricality, the mask, and the figure of the trickster—a recurring character in her work. "It’s a  mood, a state, a gesture. It’s like carrying a piece of theater, of a dream, of unanswered questions  with you. The coat isn’t simply decorative,” says Kosheleva. 

Italian artist Paola Pivi often incorporates everyday objects into her art, altering their  characteristics to prompt the audience to reevaluate their perspective on reality. Currently  residing in lush Hawaii, she finds inspiration in the island’s beautiful, full light, the power and  intensity of the colors that tint the flora and fauna, and, above all, from the double rainbows that  arc across the sky almost daily, integrating them into her trench design. These natural wonders  inspired the vertical multi-colored stripes that cascade down the front and back of the trench,  creating an hourglass shape that narrows at the waist. 

Harlem-born Tschabalala Self is recognized for her assemblage paintings, prints, sculptures,  and installations that explore personhood and the cultural significance of signs and symbols.  Her trench, lacquered pastel yellow, is embellished with her pink Infinity Flowers, symbolizing  the temporal beauty and fragility of nature, which is analogous to the corporeal human  condition. The Infinity Flower, like a natural perennial that blooms year after year, reminds us  that transformation lies within our roots. The stamping process used for this wearable artwork  is inspired by the ancient dyeing technique of batik. 

Black vinyl characterizes the glossy coated trench created by multidisciplinary artist Tai Shani,  whose work encompasses performance, film, photography, and installations, primarily utilizing  experimental writing. Drawing from histories of reproductive labor, illness, and solidarity, she  seeks to reclaim feminized aesthetic modes—such as the floral, psychedelic, and gothic— 

through a lens of utopian militancy. In her words, the black vinyl “plays on the trench as a sartorial  symbol of clandestinity, paired with hand-illustrated images of adorable cats, a cute wink at 1950s pinups.” 

Bologna-based emerging Chinese artist Shafei Xia, known for her irreverent, provocative, and  amusing nature that draws from 19th-century Japanese shunga and Chinese erotic paintings,  along with the cultured narcissism of Luigi Ontani, used her signature technique of painting  watercolors on sandalwood paper to create her artwork: a woman merging into a white tiger,  festooned with floral details that spread across the trench’s back from collar to hem. The  imagery presents a contrast between a calm surface and the storm beneath, where two  opposing forces coexist, wrapping around each other. A glimmer of joy emerges quietly from  crimson flowers while life burns between love and destruction. 

The campaign is shot by Petra Collins; a multi-talented artist and director whose photography  defined the stylistic tone for much of the 2010s and 2020s. 

In the A Weekend with an Artist imagery, she presents a unique perspective – self-portraiture. Collins is no stranger to being in front of the cameras, and in this shoot, she poses wearing the exclusive five trench coats, also shot in still-life versions, in a setting that resembles a warehouse stacked with artworks. 

Filled with collector’s item desirability, each of these artistically driven statement pieces  becomes a new form of art. One to wear.