Flight Patterns

Sofia Richie + Donald Robertson Breeze Through Lotusland in Weekend Max Mara’s Latest Technicolor Capsule

Written by Elizabeth Varnell | Photographs by Dewey Nicks | Produced by Creative Chaos/Gina Tolleson

Los Angeles native Sofia Richie is strolling through Lotusland across sprawling lawns, past succulents, and amid fern groves—just the sort of places frequented by dragonflies and other iridescent creatures of flight. “Santa Barbara has been my family’s escape ever since I was a child,” says the model and entrepreneur, who has combined this trip with a photo shoot for Weekend Max Mara Flutterflies. The wildly colorful Spring/Summer 2021 Signature capsule line was designed in collaboration with Dallas-based pop artist and part-time Montecito resident Donald Robertson.

The Weekend Max Mara capsule collection was shot on location during the summer of 2020 with strict Covid protocols still in place.

A maxi dress moment in the fern garden. Cotton strips, mimicking gaffer tape, accentuate the waist.

A silk scarf from the capsule proved to be a fashionable and practical pandemic accessory.

 Richie in flight, in head-to-toe Flutterflies collection garb, including screen-printed sneakers.

The artist in his Santa Monica studio (he has since relocated to Texas).

Artist Donald Robertson plays with his signature Weekend Max Mara fabric. “I believe happiness is a decision you make when you wake up,” he says. “Rainbow-stripe jeans can help if you are having a tough day.”

The setting is a welcome one for Richie, who notes, “It’s a quiet place [where] I feel I can clear my mind. What gives me butterflies these days is nature,” she confides, and her regional hikes have taken her from the coast to inland waterfalls, allowing for “endless discoveries” along the way. “Through the pandemic I have found a new love for learning more about the planet,” she adds.

“What gives me butterflies these days is nature,” Richie confides. “Through the pandemic I have found a new love for learning more about the planet.

Describing his own witty and often madcap creative vision, Robertson says, “I just start taping [blank canvases], and miracles happen.” The Italian fashion house tapped the longtime Estée Lauder creative director—who has a penchant for using vivid gaffer tape—to create the collection’s Technicolor stripes, elongated female figures, and fluttering butterfly prints. Robertson’s imaginative drawings are now splashed across sneakers, cotton dresses, pants, shirts, and pencil skirts, plus epically cartoonish Pasticcino bags. “I believe happiness is a decision you make when you wake up,” Robertson says. “Rainbow-stripe jeans can help if you are having a tough day.” •

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