Miu Miu has a knack for bringing It girls not just to the front row, but onto the runway. Today at Paris Fashion Week, the former group included Sydney Sweeney, Nara Smith, Alix Earle, and Renée Rapp. (And at least one It guy: A$AP Rocky.) At the Palais D’Iéna, the walls had been covered in yellow moiré fabric specifically for the show, and women sporting the brand’s signature owlish glasses and cropped polos sat rapt in the audience.
With a cast that included Gigi Hadid, Lou Doillon, Raffey Cassidy, Laura Harrier, and Sarah Paulson, the collection was heavy on structured overcoats and silky, lingerie-inspired slip dresses. The models wore cloche hats and colorful knee socks and carried top-handled Hitchcock-heroine bags. Embellishment was a through line, with everything from demure cardigans sporting brooches to socks getting the bejeweled treatment. “There is a sense of tension and anxiety today, and of fear,” Miuccia Prada said in her show notes. Rather than retreating to the safe and minimalist, as fashion often does in tough times, she wanted to take familiar, everyday pieces and find a way to make them elevated and elegant.
In her show notes, Mrs. Prada framed the collection as “a reflection of and upon the meaning of women, expressed through clothes,” a concept she also dug into in her Prada collection at Milan Fashion Week. With its mix of throwback femininity and tailored menswear, this felt like the youthful corollary to that show. She imbued even the more masculine pieces with curve-complementing silhouettes. And as always, she split the difference between the nerd and the cool girl with sweaters that dipped off the shoulder, prim plaid skirts, and perfectly off-center color combinations.
Mrs. Prada can make us look at just about anything differently: Over the past few years, she’s transformed everything from boat shoes to boxer shorts into surprising must-haves. In her hands, retro touches like bullet bras and librarian glasses felt like instant candidates for street-style fame. Just ask her much-photographed acolytes mingling at the entrance.
