MILAN, Italy — Tropical modern is how the press notes described the Max Mara show today, complete with a luxuriant tropical forest behind a brutalist concrete wall. That was the modern, or rather modernist, part. The collection, fittingly, looked split in two: the rather obvious profusion of tropical prints on sporty separates accessorized with outsized visors was offset by a tougher series of coats, parkas and windbreakers in technical, metropolitan fabrications.

Underneath all the outerwear - the house specialty - were curvaceous bodies cinched and glorified in every possible way: leggings, girdles and various hybrids of sexy underwear and performance wear. This is a season of empowered femininity. However, Max Mara's sporty vixens were so brash they looked a bit passé.