Moments of beauty, touches of history, pieces of life. The Spring/Summer 2024 Miu Miu collection by Miuccia Prada explores a rationale of beauty today – exploding, redressing. In an ever-changing world, beauty must echo the complexity of our era: this collection is a search for a reflective definition, a reactive address of beauty for modern times. Instead of rigid paradigms, there is a radical expansion, a rich plurality. Not beauty, but beauties, an embracing of unique characters, the joy of life.
The character cast included Eddy Aldridge, May Andersen, Mame Bineta Sane, Petra Collins, Rosemary Ferguson, Amelia Gray Hamlin, Gigi Hadid, Troye Sivan, Liu Wen, Karolin Wolter and Cailee Spaeny who closed the show.
Traces of living mark the clothes – washing, distressing, marked suedes and leathers, an exaggeration of the passage of time expressive of the notion of prior use, of existing love. Prototypical ideas of clothing hold significance. Swimwear, sportswear, evening wear. Men’s bathing slips, kid-mohair tailoring, antique underwear, New Balance 530, Church’s Shanghai, elegant dresses in embroideries and brocades. The notion of meaningful design is expressed through a connection with intention, with objective and benefit. Garments devised for specific purpose, functions and events are here remixed in unanticipated combinations – a maillot de bain with a cocktail dress, a petticoat with a blazer.
“Last day of the show season, and Miuccia Prada’s Miu Miu gave a fabulous sendoff to Spring ‘24. She said she usually has a theory about fashion — the collection was called “A Rationale of Beauties” — but this time she worked without a theoretical safety net and showed “what I really, personally like.” The reference in her show manifesto to “the joy of life” came straight to the point of clothes that were, in fact, joyous. Inclusive too, not only for the co‐ed spirit, but also for the ease with which Miuccia mixed genders, decades, cultures high and low. As twisted/straightforward as a polo shirt and a pair of jeans accessorised with a big sparkly necklace (they’d be real diamonds if she was wearing them), or a black brocade coat with a little back bow, classic couture, thrown over a speedo and a tiny pelmet skirt, or a schoolboy blazer over bermudas. Mocassins! Monkstraps! Combinations which looked they’d been casually, spontaneously thrown together from a whole pile of swimsuits, uniforms, underwear, sportwear, evening wear and vintage (or “touches of history” in manifesto‐speak), all of it revolving around the hip‐ slung silhouette that has turned Miu Miu into a sales sensation.”
BOF – Tim Blanks
“Want to know what you will wear next? Quite possibly a rah-rah skirt so short it shows your rear end or (if you are of a mind-set that eschews rah-rah skirts) a pencil skirt or pair of trousers or even pair of men’s swim trunks that sit so low on the hips they flirt with bumster-dom. They’ll probably be cinched with a wide leather belt or at the very least expose the elastic logo waistband of your underwear. With them, a schoolboy striped Oxford shirt, navy V-neck sweater and navy blazer. Or maybe you’ll forget the pants and skirts entirely — too much to think about! — and just toss a jeweled flapper wrap dress or a gold brocade opera coat over your shirt. Then you might stuff an extra pair of shoes, the kind that gave you blisters so you had to put Band-Aids on your heels but you love them so you’ll take them anyway, into your handbag before sprinting out the door. The Miu Miu brand — not to mention Mrs. Prada’s whole aesthetic — has quietly become one of the most influential in fashion.”
New York Times – Vanessa Friedman
“Miuccia Prada’ s Spring/Summer 2024 Miu Miu show continued her exploration of reality-driven styling, with dishevelled layering, lived-in knitwear and short-shorts and colourful plasters fixed to the feet as an accessory. The momentum Miuccia Prada has created with the real-girl look she started carving out some four seasons ago reflects and impacts a current desire for realness. Because when you talk about Miu Miu that word keeps popping up: real. On the final day of the show season, she amplified and almost fetishized that idea as real-life real-girl representatives Sydney Sweeney, Emma Chamberlain and Mia Goth looked on from the front row. Prada re-established the Miu Miu silhouette that’ s seen recent collections fly off the shelves: skimpy hemlines expressed in knickers (worn as daywear), shorts and tiny tennis skirts paired with oversized blazers, bombers and coats. Triangular tops styled with low-slung tailored trousers continued the Y2K vibe beloved by a new generation of shoppers. The collection was underpinned by a decidedly preppy mood that riffed on an American idea of ease: crested jackets over polo shirts over shirts worn with Bermuda shorts.”
Vogue UK – Anders Christian Madsen
“Bringing down the curtain on a confusing and emotionally fraught season, it took the great Miuccia Prada to give such a coherent, empathetic and confidence-building show for women, by a woman. Miu Miu was a brilliantly confirming run-through and remix of all the clothes we love, hoard, and rely on; the basic and the glittery, the sporty and the bonkers. The unconventional combinations of garments—apparently happy accidents of styling—were aimed, Prada communicated in a press release, at an “embracing of unique characters, the joy of life.” Her bespectacled Miu Miu characters in action were going about their business dealing with feeling everyday messy (yet also looking great); greasy hair, coats thrown over nighties, sloppy old unbuckled saddle shoes included. Some were lugging handbags stuffed with a change of footwear, as you do. In a season when there’s been so much talk about the need for ‘real’ clothes, straight-up Miu Miu polo shirts, Oxford shirts, trench coats, and school uniform jackets were all present and correct—but then worn with Prada’s favorite underpants or funny short frilly techno-tutus topped with tracksuit drawstring waistbands.”
Vogue Runway – Sarah Mower
“Mrs. Prada fascinating spring show was chockablock with such odd fashion bedfellows, like a petticoat with a blazer, or Neoprene shorts with a polo sweater and overcoat. She had mashed up a variety of archetypes — among them security guards, surfers, schoolgirls, preppies and librarians — and gave the models nerdy glasses, colorful Band-Aids on their heels and toes, and matted or frizzled hair. It felt like an anti-glamour statement, although glamor was never far away. It was there in the chunky crystal necklace draped over the collar of a navy polo shirt; in the chunky heels shoved into multipocket handbags, and the gleaming gold brocade sheath dresses mangled up with business shirts. Miu Miu’s micro skirts and pants-free silhouettes continue to influence many other runways, and Prada didn’t abandon those ideas, just as she never really go of borderline homely sweaters, here styled under sparkly flapper dresses, and handsome leather or suede car jackets, here tossed over swimming trunks or what have you. The runway cast — which included actors Troye Sivan, Cailee Spaeny and Mame Bineta Sane — reinforced the feeling of character studies, rather than trend mongering.”
WWD – Joelle Diderich