Miu Miu has always been that girl. In the three decades since its inception, the label has matured from Prada’s “little sister” to industry powerhouse, all while maintaining its singular ‘it’ factor.
The Miu Miu look has always been a little difficult to pin down. Season after season, it shifts ever so subtly, slipping into something else, else almost entirely. In addition to its hallmark patterns and embellishments, the thread that runs through the label’s near 60 womenswear collections is a covetable “je ne sais quoi,” a conceptual preoccupation of designer Miuccia Prada and a characteristic shared by the many it-girls who have faced the label over the years. En bref, Miu Miu is an exploration of womanhood’s multiplicities, each collection reading as one of the myriad moods we slip in and out of, the different (and oftentimes, disparate) whims we indulge via clothing. Like all of us, the Miu Miu woman is at once girlish and garçonne, intellectual and insouciant. Sometimes she’s devilish and, other times, demure. But, in the end, she’s always got ‘it.’
To fête Miu Miu’s latest Paris Fashion Week outing, we’re looking back at some of the label’s most iconic collections, from the 90s to now.
Spring/Summer 1996
After Prada’s massive success in the early 90s, Miuccia launched Miu Miu in 1993. The brand quickly garnered its own high-fashion cred, snagging a spot at New York Fashion Week, along with faces like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Stella Tennant, by 1995. Miu Miu’s first major splash arrived during the SS96 season. The collection served as an early foray into the “ugly-chic” look that would come to define Miuccia’s design aesthetic in the decades to come, and featured 70s staples — avocado green, kitschy florals and brown plaid — reimagined for the 90s baby tee-wearing X-Girls, like Chloë Sevigny, who opened the season’s show.
Spring/Summer 2006
For SS06, Miu Miu served up a modern re-envisioning of the mid-century space age craze. Think Paco Rabanne-style shifts rendered in cutesy cotton eyelet, beehive hairdos paired with Jetsons sunglasses, and slip dresses and Mary Janes exploding with graphic starbursts. The collection’s distinctive astral patterns stole the show and served as the first in a series of cartoonish patterns that would become part of Miu Miu’s brand DNA.
Spring/Summer 2008
With Miu Miu, Miuccia often merges myriad feminine archetypes to create something entirely new. For SS08, the designer married the sartorial signifiers of prima ballerinas, French maids, Playboy bunnies and Harley Quinn to create a collection of flouncy frocks as sexy as they were quirky.
Spring/Summer 2010
With its prim collars, Mary Janes, and iconic cat pattern, Miu Miu’s SS10 collection defined the twee aesthetic of the early 2010s. In addition to becoming a Tumblr dashboard mainstay, the offering’s sweet printed pieces became a hit among the decade’s it girls, being worn by Chloë, Daisy Lowe and Courtney Love — just to name a few.
Autumn/Winter 2011
Remember Miu Miu’s AW11 glitter heels? The collection’s iced-out footwear offering had fashionistas and Tumblrinas in an ironclad grip for a good year or so. Apart from the shoes, Miu Miu’s AW11 collection gave us a dreamy take on 40s tailoring with whimsical floral beading and sequinned sparrow patterns inspired by the label’s ultra successful SS10 collection. This collection also saw the inception of Miu Miu’s best-selling sunglasses model (you know the one).
Autumn/Winter 2012
From its inception to the early 2010s, Miu Miu’s trademark was its frocks: floaty slips, demure shifts, sexy fit-and-flares, the list goes on. For AW12, however, Miuccia flipped the script completely, creating a collection (almost) entirely of suiting. The offering of pantsuits drew heavily from the sleek styles of the late-60s and 70s, featuring slim silhouettes rendered in colourful geometric patterns and kitschy floral prints. One of the most memorable elements of the season’s runway show was the striking beauty look: a modern take on the 60s doe eye.
Spring/Summer 2022
And here we have it: SS22, also known as the season of the Miu Miu mini. This collection didn’t so much place Miu Miu back at the fore of pop fashion so much as it reaffirmed the label’s eternal ‘it’ cachet. For this outing, Miuccia placed her own twist on the 2020’s Y2K revival, mixing and merging the era’s McBling and Abercrombie style signifiers into something truly modern and immediately covetable.