Miu Miu Made New Luxury Out of Old Clothes
If you’ve ever walked into a secondhand shop, taken a look around, and wondered… “who’s buying this stuff?” The answer, apparently, is Miuccia Prada.
Miu Miu’s annual Upcycled capsule has become synonymous with trash (or tat, as the British say) turned into treasure by sourcing, restoring, and remixing vintage clothes from around the world for each unique collection. This year’s iteration sees Miuccia and the team start with fashion’s simplest pairing — the white cotton shirt and khaki canvas chinos — and turn out a wardrobe built from old clothes that’s entirely new and unmistakable Miu Miu, and all available online.
Raw hems? Check. Floral embroidery? Check. Ribbons, bows, and patch pockets? Check, check, and check! Coming in a utilitarian palette of black, white, and beige, this year’s Upycled collection sees trousers transform into skirts and jackets, shirts become dresses and apron tops, and pockets and seams get slashed, and backpacks in reconstructed khaki are paired with Plume sneakers in the same material, adorned this year with customizable laces and charms.
As is fitting for a fashion brand synonymous with hot it-girls (and hotter sales numbers), this year’s Upycled collection is modeled by hot it-girl Suki Waterhouse, bringing the actress and singer into a rarefied circle of Miu Miu Upcycled talent that includes K-Pop singer Wonyoung of IVE and Catherine Martin, the Academy Award-winning costume designer behind Moulin Rouge.
The mad scientist element that defines Miu Miu has been taking a page of out the Missy Elliott playbook since 2020, consistently putting its thing down, flipping it and reversing it: the 2024 collection transformed discarded denim into bra-tops, bags, and patchwork trucker jackets, while earlier iterations remixed everything from leather jackets to Levi’s, all in service of bringing “new life to clothing owned, worn and loved in the past,” according to Miu Miu itself.
In an industry literally built on literal heaps of newly produced clothing, initiatives like Miu Miu Upcycled — and the Re-Nylon line of its sister brand, Prada — prove that everything old can be made new again with a bit of creativity (and, in this instance, teams of expertly trained tailors).
Devotees to Miuccia’s have plenty to dig through, but better act fast: each piece is entirely unique, extremely limited, and available now.
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