Only Miu Miu Could Make Us Want to Wear Fedoras and Garden Clogs
The best thing about a Miu Miu show is that you never know what you're about to see. Mrs. Prada has been leading the fashion charge for decades now, constantly putting clothing and accessories and interesting style choices on the runway that no one else is touching out of fear of them not being beautiful enough. And yet somehow, even if it seems off at the time, they all eventually come around. By then of course, when her weird almost-ugly vision is trending everywhere, Mrs. Prada is onto the next thing.
This season there was no shortage of things that may give someone pause. There were fedoras, zig zag headbands, garden clogs, opera-length mittens. Sure, there were mini dresses and sheer tops, but the clothing wasn't particularly sexy. At least to the plain eye. This season, Mrs. Prada was interested in exploring intimacy in a different way. It wasn't about showing skin but about the ways in which our clothes hug our body with tender love and care.
Fedora Flashback
Last season, Mrs. Prada was responsible for the sudden interest in apron dresses, with a collection inspired by working women and finding glamour in their uniforms. This season, she may just do the impossible and make fedoras trend again. Models wore them on the very top of their head, so that they tilted almost comically so, with a slant that seemed to defy gravity but didn't. The effect was purposeful, as Mrs. Prada opened her show notes titled 'Mindful Intimacy' with, "The smallness of our human bodies, in the vastness of our world."
An Exploration of Mindful Intimacy
The conversation around sensuality in clothing is often limited to how others perceive it. A dress is sexy if someone else considers it sexy. We are often pressured to dress in ways we think others will find appealing. Mrs. Prada though wants us to consider a different kind of relationship; not the one others have with our bodies but the one we have with our own.
In the show notes she writes, "Garments embrace the body, prioritizing and valuing that inside. Pulled close to the skin, washed fabrications give a gentleness and feeling, affording a sensuality to cloth, and a sense of human experience. The idea of the antique is not about the passage of history, but about existing within times." This notion felt particularly prevalent in the way the clothing clung to the body, with wrinkles and signs of wear. What made them sexy was the fact that you can tell they were living, wrapped around the body, as it moved through life. That's real intimacy: to be loved so much you are worn.
The Mish Mash of Garden Clogs, Sparkles and Bows
Aside from setting trends in terms of what accessories and garments will become popular, Miu Miu also has a way of inspiring people to wear things in ways they've never even fathomed. This is all thanks to stylist Lotta Volkova, who styles the Miu Miu shows with a so-wrong-it's-right sensibility. This season there were dresses worn with gorp-y bedazzled sneakers and fur coats worn with slides. Every look was idiosyncratic, which in turn gave it real personality. If these looks would talk, they'd have things to say and an entire backstory. The Miu Miu girl doesn't just present, she actually lives.
The Summer I Wore Miu Miu
Miu Miu always brings out the best crowd, and everyone seemed particularly excited to see Lola Tung from The Summer I Turned Pretty. Other notable guests included Paloma Elsesser, Nina Dobrev, Tyla and Daisy Edgar Jones. Chloë Sevigny and Gillian Anderson also walked the show. The most interesting thing about the Miu Miu girl crowd every season is the fact that their personal style always shines through in their looks.
