Inside Berlin’s Neue Museum, Max Mara presented a Resort 2020 collection as stoic and evocative as the pre-historic artefacts framing the show. No other brand does a full beige look quite as well as Max Mara, but what strikes you here is how magnificently they show in the Neue Museum, whose stone steps and sand-hued walls act almost like extensions of the collection’s earthy palette.

Indeed, this collection was heavily inspired by the museum and the German capital. Max Mara’s head designer Ian Griffiths looked to his “Berlin Idols” Marlene Dietrich and David Bowie as sources of inspiration. Their androgynous style codes surfaced on the runway in the form of sleek trench coats and masculine tailoring, particularly shining through in a Dietrich-esque tuxedo and the Bowie-worthy dramatic cape silhouettes, one of which was complete with white floral sequins by German porcelain maker Meissen.

Elsewhere, the museum’s artefacts made their impressions on the clothing: a loom with a piece of linen became the basis of frayed selvage fringes, and gold leaf helmets gave rise to the delicate metallic Lurex threads in the clothing, as well as the rustic, beaten finish of jewellery designed by Reema Pachachi. Perhaps most striking of all, however, was the confident but measured use of colour, which steadily heightened in saturation with a series of looks in Pompeii red, before dipping back down into a slate grey, reminiscent of the city’s concrete architecture, before closing with a sophisticated all-white finale.