Mainstream Miu Miu: A Retrospective

How the beloved little sister of Prada grew into your favorite celebrity's sponsor.

While enjoying a walk with a friend in London, she pointed out a taxi with a Miu Miu wrap advertising a new store on Bond Street. She noted how she loved Miu Miu and that it was her favorite designer brand, but she said something that piqued my interest: “I feel like Miu Miu just came out of nowhere, it’s so impressive for a new brand to get so big so fast.” As a self-proclaimed Fashion nerd, I restrained myself from being unbearable and correcting her, saying that Miu Miu has actually been around since the 90s, and instead thought more about what she said. She was in a way kinda right., Now, don’t get me wrong, a subsidiary of Prada could never be underground; however, it does seem that now more than ever, Miu Miu has gained popularity with the general public and is being worn by people who would have never grabbed it from the rack 10 years ago. But why is this? When did the quirky experiment of designer, Miuccia Prada, turn into something an average influencer would sport?

Miu Miu was established in 1992, the name a play on Miuccia's family nickname. The brand’s first collection was released in 1993, featuring a western theme with suede fringe jackets and knit prairie dresses. The brand’s first fashion show was held in 1994 during New York Fashion Week, showcasing its 1995 spring/summer collection and featuring supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, leading to high praise. In 1995, the brand’s first celebrity campaign would premiere, featuring resident '90s cool girl Drew Barrymore, who perfectly embodied the brand’s playful rebellion. In 1996, we would see a very androgynous Chloe Sevigny grace a campaign shot by Juergen Teller, further pushing the cool factor. Sevigny would go on to have a long-standing association with the brand, frequently attending fashion shows and even walking in both the 1996 and 2016 shows. The brand continued to grow into the 2000s, being worn by Madonna on her 2004 world tour, and received an invitation to show at Paris Fashion Week in 2006, a significant milestone for Miu Miu. Cementing itself as something more than a Prada side project. The brand has always been in high demand, but over the past five years, Miu Miu has experienced a significant surge in popularity.

Following the brand’s 2022 spring/summer show, which featured cropped button-ups and sweater vests, and most famously a low-rise khaki skirt. This collection of preppy distressed office wear was a smash hit among Gen Z and Influencers. The skirt was copied, replicated, and worn hundreds of times, drawing mass attention to the brand in a way never seen before. On the heels of this mass audience explosion, the 2023 collection also became one of the most viral moments of the season, featuring actress Mia Goth and a campaign starring Emma Corrin in sparkly gold hot pants. For me, I think this is when I notice a mass shift in Miu Miu’s audience as well as perception. The ambassadors the brand took on, such as Sydney Sweeney or Alix Earle, seemed to me somewhat out of place with the brand’s identity compared to previous partnerships, or so I thought. The gorgeous, almost Stepfordian women known for their hotness seem like a stark change compared to the messy, edgier artsy girls of Miu Miu’s past. To me, I think that was the biggest indicator of how the brand wanted to be seen now. It seems like Prada’s little sister grew up.

Miu Miu is now simply too big to be exclusively loved by fashion people, artsy actresses, or niche favs; it is as mainstream as it gets. The rebellious, youthful looks I have long associated with Miu Miu are fading further and further away. I find it interesting that, out of all the brands to transition from semi-known to hugely desirable, Miu Miu was the brand that became a mainstream darling or blew up. To me, it would make way more sense for a brand like Dsquared2 or Blumarine (again, neither of which are particularly niche and are experiencing a comeback of sorts) to blow up. Especially in 2022, fresh off the pandemic and the resurgence of Y2K style at its all-time high, why wouldn't brands that evoke the 2000s dominate compared to the relatively tame Miu Miu? Currently, I believe Miu Miu is in an unusual position, experiencing flourishing sales and leveraging the virality it gained a few years ago to attract more customers and fans, while struggling with its image and what the brand now represents, a couple of years after receiving massive attention. I think that Miu Miu will undoubtedly continue to see success in sales and certain items will trickle down into the everyday persons closet (I’ve seen multiple dupes of the Regard glasses in between me writing this) but I do think that once the next shiny new thing finds its way into the internet's fashion arena she’ll have to return to her roots.