Marina Rinaldi on leading her latest campaign on how size doesn’t matter

Fashion

When Marina Rinaldi unveiled the visuals for its latest institutional campaign this September, the image at the centre of the frame was a single pearl, with a tailor’s measuring tape placed alongside it, and the pairing was chosen to open a new chapter for the Max Mara Fashion Group label that has dressed women beyond standard sizing since 1980. The campaign carries the title Size Doesn’t Matter, and a Marina Rinaldi spokesperson says it began life as an advertising line before growing into a full manifesto. “It became a manifesto at the exact moment we realised we could no longer limit ourselves to dressing a body and had to start celebrating an identity,” she says.

The house was founded in 1980 by Achille Maramotti, the founder of Max Mara Fashion Group, and takes its name from his great-grandmother, who ran a tailoring atelier in Reggio Emilia in 1850. The campaign follows the introduction of a new logo and graphic identity earlier this year, and its manifesto text opens with a statement of belief that reads “Measurements do not define a woman. A size cannot capture her elegance, strength, or uniqueness.” The brand adds that since its inception it has held that “style knows no bounds, and elegance cannot be measured”, a conviction it now carries into a more essential and contemporary aesthetic.

For the spokesperson, the change of tone is best understood by looking at where the label began. “From 1980 we were just offering a size, so the main focus was finding a size in our store, and now we are creating a sort of aesthetic dignity for our clients,” she explains. “Our clients are no longer to be hidden or corrected because of their physical shape, and instead they have to be celebrated.”

She is equally direct about how Marina Rinaldi sees its place among the many houses that now speak about inclusivity. “So many brands in the fashion industry are adopting inclusivity as a marketing strategy, just like a trend, but for Marina Rinaldi it is our DNA and our foundation, and we have been engineering our garments and our tailoring for decades, so we are a reference point and a pioneer,” she says.

The pearl and the measuring tape carry that position in visual form. The tape recalls the house’s first campaign and is now presented as a symbol of authentic tailoring and master craftsmanship, having once been read as a boundary imposed on the body. “It is no longer an instrument of measurement or restriction, it is the symbol of our tailoring and engineering, and we are telling our clients that we respect the differentiation of the physical form because this is our heritage,” the spokesperson says. The pearl, which the campaign describes as small, round, precious and powerful yet delicate, stands for what the brand calls a refined, intimate and indomitable femininity, and the spokesperson reads it as a story of patience. “The pearl is a masterpiece of time and care, because it comes from a very long transformation that begins with a grain of sand inside a shell, something that should not be there, and layer by layer it turns that little mistake into something precious,” she says. “It is also a celebration of nonconformity, because no two pearls are equal, so it celebrates the authenticity and the unique shape of our women.” The visuals are also planned for unconventional city locations under the banner Spread the Manifesto.

The same thinking runs through the autumn winter 2026 collection, titled The Shape of Joy and presented at Milan Fashion Week in February. “We need to look at the past in order to understand what we are and to go ahead in the right way, so we are keeping our heritage, our sartorial eye and our engineering, and we continue to study fabrics that allow our clients to be at ease,” the spokesperson says. The language around the clothes has become more contemporary, and she says the aim is “to be very consistent and coherent with the message that we are conveying”, which explains why pearls and curves now run through the core capsule. No single piece defines the direction, since the pearl is present in more or less every garment, although dresses and blouses, along with trousers, receive particular attention from the design team. “In these categories we are definitely one of the leaders,” she adds.

Fit sits at the centre of the story, and it explains why the runway and campaign featured women of many sizes. The range runs from size 44 to size 62, and the spokesperson says proportion matters as much as the number on the label. “We are from 44 till 62, and what matters is proportion, because a 44 can be a 44 with completely different proportions, and what is important for Marina Rinaldi is to be the right friend for each of those women,” she explains. Each size is developed for the body it will dress, which means a standard model is never simply scaled up or down. “Coming to Marina Rinaldi means having a perfect fit for your body.”

Readers in the Emirates will recall that the label has worked with regional designers in the past, among them Lebanese couturier Georges Chakra, whose evening capsule was previewed during Dubai Fashion Week, and Dima Ayad. This season the house is not collaborating with an outside designer, and the spokesperson is careful to leave the door open. “Past collaborations were very useful for sharing know-how and new ideas, and I cannot say that in the future we won’t have something like this, because it is very important for a company, but right now we are focusing on ourselves, and we need to speak about Marina Rinaldi and its values.” The collection is available in Marina Rinaldi stores and at marinarinaldi.com.

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Images: Supplied