Covert creations with a nod to James Bond

There’s a new Bond film out next year, with a female 007. No, not a Jane Bond, but a new holder of the licence to kill.

Women in uniform … models show off the Max Mara Spring 2020 collection in Milan. Picture: AP

There’s a new Bond film out next year, with a female 007. No, not a Jane Bond, but a new holder of the licence to kill.

Should the film’s producers be looking for suitable attire for her, they need look no further than Max Mara Spring 2020.

The Italian label dedicated its collection to all things covert, the show notes, citing feminist writer Natasha Walter, who wrote: ­“Fiction needs more female spies, after all, women are trained to keep secrets.”

It also acknowledged Modesty Blaise, Killing Eve and its season-one scribe and Bond co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. With seemingly few pieces, this collection was packed to the gills with go-­anywhere, do-everything ­pieces that sometimes gave the sense of a uniform that offers a sense of purpose, and perhaps ­disguise.

Trench coats, sometimes long, sometimes short, were a tradit­ional nod to the espionage theme.

Utility detailing underpinned the whole collection — patch pockets adorned shirts, shorts, skirts and jackets, and hung from holsters. All the better for staying hands-free and stashing the tools of the trade.

In case lunch is part of the plot, a slim white dress with back-strap detailing is ideal, while for that evening cocktail party longline silk skirts tiered on the diagonal offer a fluttering charm in a light breeze.

Both of these would pack easily­ into the oversized Whitney bag, which would surely hold enough to keep you going for a stake-out or two.

Fendi offered quite a different proposition for spring — perhaps a new summer of love. Taking its cues from the late 60s, a sense of nostalgia and comfort permeated the whole collection.

It was also upbeat, optimistic, and occasionally witty. There was some easy-wear outerwear and shirt dressing in utility drill ­cotton, which will appeal to those less interested in frivolity.

But the show really got its era on with bold florals in 70s hues, in twist-front jersey dresses or sheer coats, bralette tops under cardigans and full-length suede coats.

Socks, slingbacks and oversized sunnies were the finishing touches.

And did we mention already that bags are getting bigger? Huge, in fact.

Any woman who remembers the 1960s and 70s will also remember the quilted dressing gowns of her youth. Now she can wear them out after sundown, no slippers attached.

If not as a coat, then that same shiny, quilted fabric was also fashioned­ into baggy trousers, cardigan jackets or flower-emblaz­oned maxidresses — the ultimate in comfort fashion, merciful­ly short of a Snuggie.