MILAN, Italy — Who could ever have foreseen the day when a Max Mara collection would be sung down the catwalk by old tars chorusing, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

But unexpected things can happen when you go down to the sea in ships, like the label’s creative director Ian Griffiths did this season. “Fashion follows what’s happening in the world,” was his rather oblique explanation. He was on firmer ground when he quoted Jean Cocteau: “Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.” Max Mara offered a little of both.

Parkas and peacoats, Breton stripes, matelot pants and a double-breasted officer’s jacket in navy are the predictable quintessence of nautical style. Griffiths “re-fashioned” them, double-facing the peacoat, cutting the parka from ivory wool, applying the matelot buttons to a pencil skirt, outlandishly extending the sleeves of striped tops. He also added the primary colours of the ships’ pennants he remembered from holidays in Devon when he was a child. Illustrator Brian Grimwood’s pictures of seagulls, dolphins and ships were printed on t​-shirts​’s and accessories.

And then the story went a little bit sideways. Max Mara has always stood for unimpeachable sophistication, but, according to Griffiths, the word just doesn’t mean the same anymore. “Naïve is the new sophisticated,” he claimed. So he introduced an almost child-like element to Thursday’s show, which he credited to the influence of the legendary London fashion anarchists Body Map, whose association with Max Mara would hitherto have been as unlikely as a drunken sailor's. Those extended sleeves, for instance, or the star motif that was blown up in little knit tops. Tom Pecheux stencilled the models’ eyes with big patches of colour. Coats and jackets were deliberately buttoned-up all wrong, just like a child (or that sailor) would do it. It was a different kind of energy, and yes, it was mostly about the styling, but, as Griffiths said, “You’ve got to push the boat out.”  Without rocking it, of course.