Le Parfum translates the house’s outerwear icon into a woody floral, with Florence Pugh fronting Mario Sorrenti’s campaign
Max Mara will enter the fragrance category on September 1 with Le Parfum, a debut scent built around the design language of its signature 101801 coat. Florence Pugh fronts the accompanying campaign, photographed by longtime house collaborator Mario Sorrenti.
Arriving during Max Mara’s 75th anniversary year, Le Parfum extends the house’s tailoring heritage into beauty through a tightly controlled translation of an established brand code. The coat informs the fragrance concept, bottle design, material language, and campaign imagery, giving the launch a direct connection to Max Mara’s core fashion business.
Perfumers Fabrice Pellegrin and Marie Salamagne developed the woody-floral composition around sandalwood and cedarwood, layered with a creamy tuberose absolute. Vanilla and benzoin add warmth and depth, creating the enveloping quality behind Max Mara’s description of the scent as an invisible coat.
The formula is certified vegan and contains 90 percent natural-origin ingredients. Its materials include natural cedarwood and Australian sandalwood essences, tuberoses sourced from Grasse and Guatemala, benzoin extract, and Italian lemon primofiore essence.
Le Parfum’s bottle carries the fashion reference into three dimensions. Its architectural glass silhouette is wrapped with a lacquered central belt, echoing the construction of the 101801 coat. Camel coloring, gold accents, stitched detailing, and a button-shaped element on the spray cap reinforce the connection. The bottle will be offered in refillable 50 ml, 100 ml, and 150 ml formats.
The campaign turns the invisible-coat premise into a visual narrative. Pugh appears wrapped in camel Max Mara outerwear inside a stripped-back room, with Sorrenti using muted light and a restrained composition to emphasize presence, texture, and physical ease. The coat appears as an extension of the body, mirroring the fragrance’s intended relationship with the skin.
Pugh’s casting brings a contemporary cultural presence to a launch grounded in house heritage. Her direct gaze and composed posture support Max Mara’s established image of femininity as self-possessed, independent, and quietly assured. Sorrenti’s imagery keeps the focus on that character, using the camel coat as the campaign’s central visual device.
The scent, bottle, and campaign form a cohesive brand-extension strategy. Each element draws from the same recognizable product asset, allowing Max Mara to enter fragrance with an identity anchored in its own design history.
Le Parfum gives the house a new point of access through an intimate beauty category. The 101801 coat supplies immediate visual ownership, turning decades of fashion recognition into the foundation for Max Mara’s fragrance business.
