Editor’s Note: We’re kickstarting the Fall 2024 menswear season by adding two Miu Miu ready-to-wear collections (Spring and Fall 1999) to the Vogue Runway archive. These were the first two shows with menswear from Miu Miu, a line that was active for ten years (1998-2008) and around which a nostalgic cult has developed. It is impossible to relive the past, but documenting it is another story…. To enjoy.
The lounge chairs at the Fall 2022 Miu Miu show invited a relaxed posture, so if guests didn’t sit up when Loic Paulmier (Look 13) appeared; their fashion antenna certainly did. Only a handful of male models took to the catwalk, but it was enough to revive the cult of the Miu Miu men’s collection, a line introduced in 1998 and abandoned in 2008. (Interestingly, Prada Sport was also launched in the spring of 1999.)
There has been no announcement of a relaunch of Miu Miu menswear and no menswear category on the brand’s website, but that hasn’t stopped the groundswell of nostalgia – on the part of people who knew and loved the brand and loved it. others who are in love with the brand. idea of it. Both groups crave the kind of clothing that goes beyond basic in subtle ways and represents a reverie of pristine youth.
Although not a “little sister” brand to Prada, Miu Miu (a diminutive of Miuccia, the designer’s nickname) was lower priced and younger. The magic of the line was and is how it manages to capture that indefinite, ambiguous in-between moment associated with the transition to adulthood, while at the same time suggesting uniforms within which it might navigate. That feeling is present in the first exit from spring 1999, in which James Rousseau wears a blazer over a tie-neck shirt, shorts and Velcro sandals. Together, the elements somehow connect la vie bohème and gorp core with a first job interview/first job twist. “Miu Miu for men is reminiscent of Forrest Gump – a very cool Forrest Gump,” was The Toronto star‘s take.
Some writers felt that Miu Miu men were androgynous, especially in the beginning. If the women’s and men’s clothing here are very closely related, so are the models in their youth. The male models look particularly baby-faced, almost like Counselors in Training, even though they were dressed more formally than their female counterparts.
That sense of finding your footing, or exploring new territory, carried over to the collection’s advertising campaign, which featured May Andersen and Rousseau separately in a man-made tropical environment, equipped with a state-of-the-art, clinical camper or tent. A kind of controlled wildness was also present in the clothing, which spread work and play, transforming more domestic, rural elements (fringes, cowboy boots) for the city.
The relevance of Miu Miu’s Spring 1999 mixed collection is not only tied to nostalgia for the menswear line, but may also provide clues as to where fashion is headed. A year after this show was presented, The Daily TelegraphHilary Alexander reported that “minimalism’s latest spin-off has been dubbed ‘utility chic’ or ‘the urban uniform,’ a no-nonsense, no-fuss work wardrobe that’s as simple as a takeaway and as quick as an e-mail.” -mail . The details may come from sportswear, but the interpretation is strictly uptown: sleek, bright and modern. The ingredients are techno fabrics and a sleek, streamlined silhouette.” These thoughts seem to reflect the New Year’s predictions regarding a gorp core reboot, right?
