Our Chat With Marie-Louise Sciò On Her Perfect Summer Suitcase for Weekend Max Mara

Marie-Louise Sciò knows a thing or two about summer. As CEO and Creative Director of Pellicano Hotels, her working life regularly moves between an office in Rome and the sun-drenched world of Italian hospitality. It is a rhythm that involves hotels, travel, meetings, dinners and the occasional glamorous detour, often without much certainty about where the day will end.

So when Sciò was invited to create Weekend Max Mara’s Spring/Summer 2027 Signature Collection, she started with something she genuinely needed herself: the perfect suitcase.

Titled “A Weekend with Marie-Louise Sciò,” the collection is conceived as a wardrobe capable of moving from work to leisure and from morning to evening without requiring a complete outfit change in between.    

By Cynthia Jreige

“It literally is my dream kind of suitcase,” Sciò told me when we met to discuss the collaboration. “I go from work to the hotels, and then when I’m in the hotels, I go in the morning and I never know what happens during the day and at what time I go home.”

That unpredictability became useful design material: “I wanted to create a really wearable collection that you can wear during the day and you can wear at night, and you just accessorize it to change the mood or tone,” she continued. “You literally throw everything in a suitcase and you’re always put together in a kind of timeless Italian elegance, but no-fuss style.”

The resulting wardrobe feels less concerned with dressing for individual occasions than with making the same clothes work harder. Silhouettes are relaxed but still tailored. There is a kimono jacket worn with matching shorts, while the safari jacket is reconsidered across a jacket, patch-pocket skirt, blouse and playsuit. Dresses are full and fluid, trousers gently flare, and blouses move between structured collars and softer ruching. Fabrics range from crisp and stretch cotton to viscose neoprene, silk-and-cotton blends and washed linen.    

For Sciò, versatility isn't really about practicality for practicality's sake. It reflects the way she already dresses. “Nowadays, sometimes less is more,” I observe during our conversation. “People don’t want to overpack. They just want versatile pieces.” Sciò agreed: “They’re just timeless and not following any trend. It’s something you want in your closet forever.”

That feels particularly relevant at a moment when the constant churn of micro-trends can make getting dressed unnecessarily complicated. Sciò's answer is refreshingly straightforward: fewer pieces, good clothes and enough flexibility to wear them differently depending on where you end up.

What could have felt like a celebrity-adjacent collaboration actually makes considerable sense. Sciò's aesthetic and the codes of Weekend Max Mara already share an appreciation for Italian ease, quality and clothes that don't need to shout to make themselves noticed.

“I think we have a lot of similarities with the DNA of the brand,” she said. “What they do is really timeless quality, and it doesn’t scream and yell. They’re pieces that you keep in your closet forever.” The same philosophy, she explained, informs her work at Pellicano Hotels. “It was really easy to align, because that’s our same philosophy in the hotels, and it’s the same philosophy I have design-wise and style-wise.”

I couldn't resist admitting that Pellicano happens to be one of her dream holiday destinations.

The collection's colour palette makes the packing proposition even easier. Ivory, navy, khaki, chocolate brown, beige and sage green form its foundation, interrupted by saffron yellow and rust orange. Metallic accessories bring the evening element, including the Pasticcino Bag in pleated gold nappa, chunky jewellery, ballerinas and silver and gold mules.    

When I asked which single piece best represented her ideal summer wardrobe, Sciò struggled to pick one. “It’s hard to choose because it’s like choosing between your kids, right?” One contender was a short knit dress. “You can wear this little short knit dress during the day, and then you can wear it at night with a gold sandal and a gold necklace,” she explained.

Then there was the skirt she was wearing during the interview, which could be paired with a shirt or knit and move just as easily between day and evening. “It’s all really versatile. It’s about how you style the pieces together, but they all work together.”

Which is really the point; the collection isn't asking you to pack a separate personality for breakfast, beach, lunch and dinner. The same wardrobe is meant to follow you through all of them.

Sciò has helped turn Pellicano Hotels into something that extends well beyond hospitality. Its particular vision of Italian summer life, sophisticated without feeling stiff, glamorous without trying too hard, translates surprisingly naturally into clothing. Weekend Max Mara's Signature project was created precisely for this kind of exchange, inviting outside creatives to interpret the house's codes through their own point of view.    

With Sciò, the collaboration works because the clothes don't feel disconnected from the woman designing them. She really does travel constantly, she really does move between work and hotels, and she really does want a suitcase in which everything works with everything else.

Towards the end of our conversation, I spotted a shirt in the collection that looked rather similar to the one she was already wearing. “I’m happy I’m already ahead of the trend,” I joked. “With the colour?” Sciò asked.

“Yeah.” “You’re on it,” Sciò replied. “You’re on it.”

I'll take Marie-Louise Sciò's word for it.

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