There’s something uplifting about the ritual of the Miu Miu show that typically closes Paris Fashion Week. The runway presentation at Palais d’Iena always reinforces one’s faith in fashion delivering looks that are hard to scratch from the imagination. To name a few – the micro miniskirts from 2019, the quilted pastel snow suits from 2021 and those flippy tennis skirts and block toed ballerina flats from last winter. They are strange enough to be interesting and always a little rebellious and wild. Incoming are safety clip Re-nylon bra tops, giant pocketed gilets and rhinestone splattered slip skirts. These designs become a code for the serious, questioning but also fun-loving tribe who is at the heart of this on a roll again brand. Through her ingenious fusion of provocative style and hyper performing function Miuccia Prada zones in on the uniform pieces that genuinely make you smile, enquire, and think about the why. An extract from her SS23 show notes reads:
Fashion itself is part of real life - it has a use a purpose, both to dress the body and to express broader feelings, larger themes, around the individual and culture. The notion of usefulness, of fashion’s benefit and service, influences physical expression: pockets, an expression of utility are used across different garments, transgressing boundaries between decoration and function.
"Fashion itself is part of real life - it has a use a purpose, both to dress the body and to express broader feelings, larger themes, around the individual and culture."
Miuccia Prada
The notion of function exemplified by those giant pockets powered up the collection from layered up T-dresses in shades of neutral to techno nylon raincoats (that would look superfly on a bike); to the perverse thong toed boots and giant zipped fanny pack belts in distressed denim or leather. These cultish extras could carry a serious tool kit. Lingerie and sparkle have always been part of the lexicon and in this collection, bandeau bra tops in cashmere or nylon (fastened with a big safety buckle clip) appeared under sheer tube dresses while smatterings of crystals rained on slip skirts. In this vision, scantily clad does not have to equal vulnerable as signalled by the feisty character cast which included nepo actresses Esther McGregor (daughter of Ewan), Ísadóra Barney (daughter of Bjork and Matthew Barney), author/ screenwriter Miranda July plus Bella Hadid and FKA Twigs who closed the show.
Artist Shuang Li collaborated with AMO on the set featuring digital hallucinations of submarine cables and propellors that support our vast, non-stop data and communication channels while Eli Osheyack created the spoken word soundtrack based on the intimate messages that are often lost in translation in our wild Web3 world. You can’t put the Miu Miu girl in a box and that ultimately is what fires up the good vibes.
