Miu Miu FW2024: Changing the cliché of beauty

Miuccia Prada has taken a new direction. This is not to say that her fashion is becoming the place of clichéd beauty. By no means: everything she does is still based on the fundamental idea that the cliché of beauty has to be completely taken away and changed. This principle underlies all her work as a fashion designer for close to 40 years. And this is not just a principle – it is her great mission, in which she has succeeded and continues to succeed. And over the last few seasons, Miu Miu has been the main trendsetter to a greater extent than even Prada: if Mrs Prada showed the ultra minis and ulta crop tops with bellies exposed to the max, then everyone went out to the streets wearing them, and if she released models in panties, then the very next day all the celebrities appeared in the same looks on the red carpet.

And in the Miu Miu FW2024 collection, not a single panty was shown, neither plain, nor embroidered, nor even as an elastic band peeking out from under a skirt or shorts, and there were only two bare bellies. There weren’t  that many minis either, but there were skinny jeans (and we should clearly expect their triumphant return next season). What else this collection was missing were the super voluptuous items that we have seen at Miu Miu for several years in a row. And so, with the exception of a few puffy coats, everything else was not tight, of course, but quite moderate, and the beautiful sheath dresses with cutouts in the most unexpected places were perfectly fitted. Prada has clearly articulatedthe sentiment that has been in the air for quite a while – we are tired of XXXL, although not everyone is ready to put on a pair of skinny jeans again.

But there were a lot of suits. If we look for references here, then these are the silhouettes of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which Prada stretched and lengthened so that instead of tiny little dresses, suits, and coats, we got quite the full-sized items. And this is a virtuoso stylistic exercise in fashion memory and fashion erudition, because behind these waist-length jackets and straight below-the-knee skirts, their prototypes are almost invisible, and only the collar line or location of the pockets point them out to an inquisitive viewer. And even the most striking items of the entire collection – fluffy skirts in large flowers – look like a cross between Christian Dior's later-years New Look and Andy Warhol's early pop art. Needless to say, they were paired with something as alien to them as possible – short denim jackets, cropped knitted cardigans, brutalboots (one of the few things that were carried over from the past Miu Miu collections), and thick, chunky leather gloves that looked like they belonged on a ski slope. And the skinny jeans and exposed bellies were paired with a perfect vintage-looking faux fur cloak. Remember, the cliché of beauty has to be completely taken away.

Of course, as always with Prada, there were her favourite Milanese classics like the knitted buttoned cardigans, both short and jacket-like, and long and coat-like, there were things made of rough aged leather, coloured tights, and uniform-style men's shirts and jackets. And this is what Prada replaced the cliché of beauty with. But the sum total of all these things does not explain the effect that this collection produces.

The effect is that these clothes amazingly suit everyone – from the young, slim, and tall to the aged, short, and not at all slim. They looked completely natural, albeit in different ways, on both the runway models and on actress Kristin Scott-Thomas or the Chinese doctor, who is also an Instagram star and a loyal Miu Miu customer. In all of them, they highlighted their individuality, adjusted to it, and found the necessary connecting points.

Mrs Prada says: “I personally have many characters in myself, and I think that many people have different characters in themselves: the feminine part and the masculine part, the gentle and the tough.” This is very true, and few designers know how to so gently but confidently bring these ourselves into the light of day, and to support them so much. And sometimes it seems to me that all of us, with our characters and personalities, came out of Mrs Prada’s imagination. She gave us a way to present ourselves to the world – and for that she has our unending gratitude.

Text: Elena Stafyeva