If there's one item sure to punch up festive holiday attire, it's a decadent piece of costume jewelry. Miu Miu's new cocktail baubles, appropriately and simply called The Jewels, turn the volume up on festive sparkle by layering gold-colored hardware with Swarovski crystals, Plexiglas, enamel, and pearls together — sometimes all in the same piece. But the real beauty of this collection is that its optimistic color palette and floral elements mean it'll still look fresh when Spring rolls around.
Miuccia Prada delved into the past, specifically the '50s, for Miu Miu's effortlessly ladylike Spring '13 collection. "It's elegance done a different way," said Prada. With that notion in mind, she created impossibly refined dark denim skirt suits paired with crop tops and point-toe pumps, pencil skirts with patent jackets, and smart shift dresses worn under long car coats — all accessorized with leather gloves and fold-over satchels to complete the composed feminine look. While fur is not usually associated with Spring collections, Prada broke the barriers with an assortment of fur stoles slung over the shoulder and colored fur coats. Meanwhile, textural pieces, like the crinkled skirts and tops and dimensional abstract prints, showed off a modern element in Prada's chic offerings. Most notable was the forest-green car coat paired with the patent tan-colored pencil skirt — easy, unfussy, with just the right amount of panache.
Miuccia Prada has never been shy about referencing the '50s or '60s (we submit Prada's Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 collections as proof of this), but her Spring 2013 collection for Miu Miu took the two decades' ladylike style and subverted it with unexpected materials and accents.
The first look that came down the runway? A dark denim coat and high-waisted skirt paired with a white midriff top and green leather gloves. The styling here was '60s couture, but the attitude was uniquely modern. The same can be said of a few fabrics that look like they'd been tie-dyed here or there; shiny, almost plastic materials on elegant coats and skirts; and brightly colored furs with unregulated striped sections of black.
The overwhelming feeling was one of contrasts, and Prada herself got to the bottom of that. "It's about elegance, not elegance. Couture, not couture. Tailoring, not tailoring," she told WWD. Was it Spring, but not Spring, too? That would explain all the lovely furs.
Miu Miu tapped some of the biggest names in the business to pose for its Resort 2013 ad campaign, which Steven Meisel shot earlier this month on the first day of New York Fashion Week.
Hilary Rhoda, Caroline Trentini, Jessica Stam, Karen Elson, Sung Hee Kim, Daphne Groeneveld, and Candice Swanepoel showed up for the shoot and donned colorful, floral-printed and slightly '60s Miu Miu Resort collection for the occasion. The setting for the shoot is just as colorful and decorative as the clothing and accessories themselves. A look at it all here in the gallery.
Photos Courtesy of Miu Miu
After last season's dazzling, print-on-print pantsuit action, it was anyone's guess what Miuccia Prada would offer up for Spring 2013. It's fairly certain, though, that an army of robotic geisha dressed in black, satin, and pale pink was not on anyone's list. Wearing teetering geta flatforms or slipper-like tabi sock shoes, they marched, faces deadpan and hair piled high in messy pixie spikes.
And as for the clothes, they came in vaguely Japanese silhouettes and slickly saturated hues. Crewneck tops, kimono jackets, below-the-knee shorts, A-line miniskirts, off-the-shoulder wraps, and three-quarter-sleeve shifts were cut in boxy shapes that hung crisply off the body in unfussy lines. But it wasn't all cold android emotion and dark sobriety; for a hint of playful innocence, nearly every look came adorned with cartoon-like floral appliqué or prints, and a series of pastel-hued pieces toward the end of the show were sculpted artfully in origami folds.
Miuccia Prada looked to Japan for Prada's Spring '13 collection — and the results were magically quirky. While last Spring's offerings were all about bright, '50-inspired floral prints, Miuccia flipped the switch this season, showing a color palette that consisted mostly of black, white, and red. The show opened up with structured silk box jackets, adorned with either a single floral print or appliqué, paired with sharp skirts — and leave it to the designer to pair all of her ensembles with metallic leather sock shoes or block platforms. The designer also showcased some covetable tops and statement coats; knits with pretty floral embellishments and short sleeve fur tops and coats decorated with bright red floral prints. Dresses ranged from flattering sheath silhouettes to more elaborate pleated renditions. Quirky indeed, but we can already imagine the long line of admirers — like Kirsten Dunst and Alexa Chung — waiting to get a piece of it for their next red-carpet appearance.
Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.
Forbes's annual list of the 100 most powerful women in the world has a few notable entries from the fashion world, including Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Wintour, and Miuccia Prada.
The list ranks Diane von Furstenberg at no. 33, citing her position as president of the CFDA as a reason for the high ranking. She ranks far above any of the other women on the list who work in fashion, including even Anna Wintour, whose work raising money for President Obama's reelection campaign (and the 11 million plus people who read Vogue every month) helped hear earn spot 51. Miuccia Prada also made the list: in spot 67, she is recognized for her recent inclusion in the Costume Institute's Impossible Conversations exhibit.
Lady Gaga and Gisele Bundchen, aged 26 and 32 respectively, are the youngest women on the list; most of the other members are between the ages of 37 and 73.
But age isn't the number that matters on this list. A look at the most fashionable women included — and where they rank — here in the gallery.
Just weeks after the royal family of Qatar purchased Valentino, Miuccia Prada has voiced the concern that outsourcing Italian fashion brands can only dilute their strength.
"With the sale of our luxury labels to foreigners, our entire system risks falling into second league," said Prada in a rare interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "Because if our brands cross our borders, the credit, glamour, fame, and decision making is in the hands of others, and we are abandoned, downgraded."
While Prada didn't mention the Valentino sale by name, she did say the impression of the Italian fashion industry is that it has "less resources, culture, protagonists, ideas, vitality, and money" than other countries, and that as a result "fashion goes elsewhere, looking for the best." Prada pointed to Raf Simons — who left Prada-owned Jil Sander for the top job at Dior in March — as evidence. For her part, Prada said she shows Miu Miu in Paris because she's "looking for that attraction that is called glamour."
"We live in a weak cultural world," Prada added. "We are a country that has never wanted or known how to protect and promote its immense landscape and artistic patrimony."
Showing in Paris isn't Prada's only connection to the world outside of Italy. When her company went public last Summer, she listed its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Athletic-inspired pieces with a 1970s bend made up Miuccia Prada's Resort 2013 collection. Shown on a high-gloss, starkly lit runway (the same one Prada used for her Men's Spring 2013 collection a few days later), these racing-stripe tanks, wide-bottomed trousers, colorblocked furs, and banded polos would have felt right at home on a luxed-up version of Bjorn Borg's court — right down to the striped sweatbands and square gym bags that finished each look.
