Chasing the Horizon

Commisioned by Openhouse Magazine, we paid tribute to the authentic Italian cultured brand of Weekend Max Mara on a sailing boat in San Sebastián.

Openhouse Studio worked together with photographer Salva López and filmmaker Hector Ferreño to build a narrative at sea alongside Weekend Max Mara. All of this project was made under the creative direction of Mari Luz Vidal.

The horizon had always connected her with herself through that line that separates the sky from the sea and that is impossible to reach. She could even remember the first time that, as a child, she became aware that no matter how much she sailed towards that line, she would not be able to defeat the distance that separated her from it.

She returned to San Sebastian in search of childhood summers, in search of herself and her family history. She walked around the port where she had spent so many summer afternoons while her grandfather Manuel would finish checking the moorings, taking a look at the state of the bollards, and clearing the gangway to the boats. 

It was there that he first saw Lucretia, the emblematic Dutch sailing ship built in 1927 and designed by the prestigious naval architect G. De Vries Lentsch Jr. with the intention of gifting the sea breeze to the daughter of her first owner, coming into the port. On board was Lucretia herself, a tall, imposing, young woman, who in his eyes had an exotic beauty about her. The two fell in love and the sailboat dropped anchor.

In the same port when that love story happened, she observes her own life story: on the stairs where they often went for a dip, in the wind at the end of the walkway. Her hair curls and moves with the shape of the waves. Dressed in her favourite Weekend Max Mara garments, she can feel the salt caressing the shirt while the skirt performs a contemporary dance. Stripped of her shoes, her feet gradually take root again while in the distance she finally gets the sight of Lucretia.

Once on the deck after a couple of decades, she finds herself trying to tie up the loose ends of the past but, as soon as she takes the helm, all her fears fade into the distance. The controls of the boat play at being the reins of her own life. A life in which she can fulfil all of her wishes, achieve all of her goals, go wherever she wants, even beyond the horizon.