When the Maiora 42 Exuma superyacht was unveiled earlier this year, two aspects stood out: its unusual layout and its collaboration with one of Milan's fashion greats. Lucy Dunn meets Elie Saab Jr and NEXT Yacht Group’s Giorgio Mattei to find out more...
Step inside the Elie Saab Maison studio in the heart of Milan and there is much to admire. The interiors arm of the venerable 45-year-old fashion house - renowned for dressing supermodels and Hollywood icons such as Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez - embodies the same elegance, glamour and contemporary flair as its couture. Enormous sofas in tactile, tasteful neutrals anchor the airy white rooms, while curved mirrors and statement wall lights add a touch of restrained retro sophistication.
I am here to meet Elie Saab Jr., the eldest son of the Lebanese designer and CEO of the family fashion empire, alongside NEXT Yacht Group’s vice president, Giorgio Mattei. We are here to talk about the new Maiora 42 Exuma, the Italian yard’s 42-metre flagship whose first unit sold within months of conception and is now under construction.
When it is delivered in summer 2027, the 42 Exuma will mark Elie Saab Maison’s debut in yacht interiors. Saab Jr., fresh off a flight, is the consummate plate-spinner, criss-crossing the globe to oversee the brand’s international network of stores, real estate ventures and the interiors line. His father, meanwhile, still steers the creative vision under a tight-knit team with a hands-on approach and a sharp contrast to the more corporate, monolithic fashion houses that share the Milan runway.
So what was the inspiration behind Elie Saab Maison’s vision for the yacht? “There were many!” says Saab Jr. “Of course, there's the Elie Saab DNA, the yachting world and Maiora 42 Exuma itself. The philosophy that we wanted to have on the yacht starts with comfort and practicality, but we also wanted a very elegant, comforting interior that was also very sophisticated. And we wanted the yacht to be a place of peace, of harmony, where people and their families can recharge and feel really at ease.”
It’s a philosophy reflected in the yacht’s layout. Designed by award-winning Giorgio M. Cassetta, the model has attracted attention not just for its heavyweight designers but for its groundbreaking GA. Focussing on how guests actually use the spaces of a yacht, it abandons typical tropes - moving the often-underused main-deck saloon to the upper deck, where guests naturally congregate, and relocating guest cabins upward to free up space below for crew quarters, a gym and service areas. While this concept isn’t new to yachting, it’s rare for a yacht of this size.
Interiors are pared back and glossy, ensuring no distraction from the natural spectacle of the open sea. “There’s a very strong link between the interiors and the exteriors,” acknowledges Saab Jr. “[Cassetta] has done an amazing job. His work was our main source of inspiration - if he went for a round shape on the balcony, we could not go with straight lines for the inside, we wanted everything to feel integrated, yet with [our] strong DNA.”
Designing yacht interiors comes with its own set of complexities but the Maison line took it in its stride under the artful guidance of architect and consultant Carlo Colombo of A++. The team used a lot of materials typical of yachts, reinterpreting them to give them a Saab spin. Teak decking runs from inside to out, which is echoed in the wood ceiling, “and [we’ve added] vintage-inspired elements that come from older yachts. It all came together in quite an interesting way.”
For Elie Saab Maison, yachting is a natural next step for a brand that prides itself on being adaptable. Understanding your market is an advantage, and Saab Jr. has a head start on this: the family is keen yacht-lovers who spend summers chartering in the Mediterranean. There’s also a strong overlap in clientele. “A lot of our key customers live on yachts, or have a yacht, or charter yachts. It's part of that lifestyle, so it's not very difficult for us to imagine who we are designing for.”
The journey from first conversations to finished interiors took a lightning-quick six months. “We started a conversation with Giorgio [Cassetta], and I felt like we already knew each other,” says Valentina Di Benedetto, Elie Saab Snr's right hand, who admits the brand had had previous approaches by other yards but never “felt comfortable” with their demands: "[It was like] we want you, but you cannot do this. We want you, but the first yacht will be ready in six years. We want you, but not now...”
Mattei recalls how all three teams hit it off right at the beginning: “It was very easy for us to share ideas with Elie Saab and to get extraordinary work from them, which gives a lot of value to this project, because this is not a conventional boat. I think that this has been an extraordinary marriage between them and us.”
He says that the Exuma 42 also combines the “greatest hits” of NEXT Yacht Group’s brands, namely AB Yachts’ water jet propulsion technology and hull expertise, with the spaces and volumes typical of Maiora: “You merge them together into an unconventional product like the Maiora Exuma. We are definitely convinced that, together with Elie Saab and Giorgio Cassetta, we have launched a new paradigm into the yachting industry,” he says.
There are even more ambitious goals for NEXT Yacht Group in the pipeline. Along with an “exciting new innovation centred around AI, launching at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show”, there are plans to scale up for the Maiora brand. “The 42 Exuma is the first yacht that allows us to enter into a different dimension. But it's only a first step, because we want to rise up to 50 metres, so it’s a strategic part of a path that we already have in mind.”
Mattei calls the working relationship with Saab and Cassetta "dynamic" and "vibrant", perhaps because Maiora's mission is similar - to avoid growing into a big corporate machine. “We are, and we will be, boutique,” he says.
He moots that customising in the yachting industry is such a “buzzword” these days. “Everyone's doing a custom yacht, but what does custom really mean? We are the ones who can definitely accommodate the owner's desires in a project, as we are boutique.” Success for Maiora is building 15-18 units per year, no more. “Building that number of units per year allows us to listen to what you desire and to make a real customisation of what [clients] have in mind. That is why we don't want to get too big.”
I ask if he sees this fashion-yachting collaboration as a one-off project or the start of something longer term. Mattei nods: “Definitely the first step in a long-lasting collaboration and we are working on other initiatives for our clients… It's just the beginning.”
Read More/Maiora unveils 42m Exuma yacht model that "breaks free" from design tropes