Miu Miu Spring 2012 Review
Photos: Imaxtree
Looks from the Miu Miu Spring 2012 show
Show: Miu Miu
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Accessories: Ribbon-tie stoles, etched high-heel shoes and boots
Overall takeaway: Intellect and intrigue to close Paris fashion week
Miuccia Prada has always been a fan of difficult fashion. If she made her latest Prada show easy to like with its chiffony riffs on femininity, trailblazer flamed shoes and vintage car prints on jeweled satin jackets, she deliberately skewed her Miu Miu show against the tide of Spring '12 sweetness she helped initiate. What could be more Prada than refusing to follow even your own trends?
Thus Miu Miu offered decidedly off, deliberately odd ideas of attraction, swaddled in layers of wool in every shade of gray. There were moments when the piled-on patchwork and ribbon-tied stoles looked like little girls plating dress-up—who could forget this was the younger sister of Prada when Miu Miu quoted Prada's influential (and continually referenced) "Lace" collection in guipure skirts and trapeze coats. If everyone else is doing it, why not capitalize on your own back-catalog?
The wool fabrics and decidedly dark palette recalled last season's ode to '40s chic. While not such an obvious runaway hit as that eminently wearable and immediately likeable collection, there was much in this Miu Miu show to like—and even to love.
SEE THE SPRING 2012 RUNWAY COLLECTIONS
