It was a big weekend of firsts for Maximilian Davis.
Although he’s been to New York before, this trip marked the British designer’s first visit in an official capacity as creative director for Ferragamo, a role he’s had for three years already (which, in today’s near-constant designer shuffle, feels like a milestone). And he wasted no time: He began with a cocktail party introducing a collaboration with Bergdorf Goodman on Friday (toasting alongside Tracee Ellis Ross, Paloma Elsesser, and LaKeith Stanfield), a dinner with VIPs at SoHo hotspot Torrisi on Saturday (again with Ellis Ross, Elsesser, Stanfield, plus Ayo Edebiri, Chris Rock, Solange Knowles, Jeff Goldblum, and Stefon Diggs), and the Met Gala on Monday. (Presumably, he spent Sunday at Ferragamo’s New York HQ, where the brand set up a makeshift atelier to put the finishing touches on the looks that’ll be walking up the museum steps.)
The Italian fashion house hasn’t dressed anyone for the Met Gala since Davis took over in 2022. But this year’s exhibition and dress code—“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and tailored to you—couldn’t be more suited for the Trinidadian-Jamaican designer from Manchester to make his debut. His father, he said at Bergdorf Goodman on Friday night, epitomized the idea of a Black dandy. His grandmother taught him how to sew. His namesake brand garnered global acclaim for its modern approach to tailoring. Naturally, his name was brought up as one of the designers to watch for on the carpet in the lead-up to the first Monday in May. (Davis didn’t just create a custom Ferragamo suit for co-chair Sir Lewis Hamilton to wear in his Law Roach-styled Vogue cover celebrating “Superfine,” he also has a couple of looks in the exhibit.)
Davis is bringing three guests to the 2025 Met Gala, all dressed in looks that don’t just reflect the theme, but also celebrate the individual, he teased. Throughout his time at Ferragamo, he’s mined the brand’s extensive archives for moments of connection, often letting his discoveries inspire his collections. His much-discussed ballet-themed spring 2025 collection, for one, was inspired by Katherine Dunham, an African-American dancer for whom Salvatore Ferragamo made custom shoes—something Davis wouldn’t have known had he not stumbled upon the original sample. He did so again for the Bergdorf capsule, reimagining a sandal style from the ’40s.
This pairing of two century-old brands—Ferragamo and Bergdorf’s—was exciting for Davis: One of his first jobs was in luxury retail back in the U.K., so he has long been aware of the iconic New York store, he explained. What always struck him about Bergdorf, he said, is the way it puts heritage houses alongside up-and-coming labels on the store floor. (One can imagine how, if he still had his namesake brand, it could hang alongside his work at Ferragamo.) He made a pit-stop there last time he was in town, to see how the collection looked, and he got recognized—something that happens more and more these days. (He received a few DMs from fans that spotted him during a recent visit to Dover Street Market in Japan.) After Monday night, he can probably expect that to become an even more common occurrence.