Editor’s Note: We continue our tradition of expanding the Vogue Runway archive by digitizing collections originally shot on film, with a quartet of shows from Miu Miu, which had back-to-back hits in 2023 with the pantless look and neo-prep polo looks. First up is the brand’s runway debut. This spring 1995 collection was originally presented in New York on October 30, 1994.
Maybe it’s the fact that the label’s moniker is taken from Prada’s diminutive nickname, but there’s long been a sense that Miu Miu is somehow a reflection of the designer’s innerself—that it functions as a sort of private playground. That sense of intimate connection was only bolstered by Prada’s focus on deshabille at this label. Whether she was caught in the process of getting dressed or getting undressed is up for debate, but the early Miu Miu heroine existed on the edge of womanhood, and was trying on personas as well as clothes.
We know from a 1994 New Yorker profile, that at one point Mrs. Prada’s wardrobe was largely supplied by the Ferrari sisters, high-end Milanese children’s tailors, “where she had dresses and coats made to order, scaled up to her size and with ‘corrections,’ such as a bigger or smaller collar than the one that was there.” Many of the details used in children’s clothing, such as smocking, insets of lace, and ruffles, likewise appear on lingerie. They also appear in Miu Miu’s spring 1995 collection.
“The models,” noted Vogue at the time, “looked like they were en route to the beauty salon, with tangled hair, long-line cotton bras, and sheer peignoirs,” but the collection really raised eyebrows at The Daily Mail, which called out its “slew of see-through dresses worn over garish red underwear.” If only they knew what was coming! Miu Miu’s pantless collection for fall 2023 was one of this year’s most influential collections.
Already known for turning industrial nylon into a fashion fabric, Prada was looked to for her material sense. The opening pair of skirt suits here were as shiny as lining fabrics. By look three, the model was already down to her underpinnings. Later, some of the garments seemed to be in-process, with slips dipping below skirt hems in a few instances or seams that looked like they had been finished with pinking shears. Elsewhere, the use of elastic-loop and button fastenings spoke to the physical act of composing oneself—a reminder that even an “undone” look is consciously put together; it is a choice.
“Miu Miu is all about bad taste,” Prada told Vogue in 1995. “For me it’s either total elegance or total bad taste. We call Miu Miu the bad girls. It’s innocent young girls pretending to be elegant and not making it. Not having a concept of what is right, to me that is very sexy.”
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