Miu Miu RTW Spring 2024

Miuccia Prada took her bow at the spring Miu Miu show with Fabio Zambernardi, as she did at Prada in Milan, paying tribute one last time to her longtime wingman. Zambernardi is now leaving his role as Prada and Miu Miu design director after more than 40 years with the Italian fashion houses.

Prada wore a sleek, tawny brown leather coat which had an unusual feature: a black knit hood hanging from under the collar, shifting the attitude from Milanese establishment chic to something a little more mysterious and edgy.

Her fascinating spring show was chockablock with such odd fashion bedfellows, like a petticoat with a blazer, or Neoprene shorts with a polo sweater and overcoat.

She had mashed up a variety of archetypes — among them security guards, surfers, schoolgirls, preppies and librarians — and gave the models nerdy glasses, colorful Band-Aids on their heels and toes, and matted or frizzled hair.

It felt like an anti-glamour statement, although glamor was never far away. It was there in the chunky crystal necklace draped over the collar of a navy polo shirt; in the chunky heels shoved into multipocket handbags, and the gleaming gold brocade sheath dresses mangled up with business shirts.

Miu Miu’s micro skirts and pants-free silhouettes continue to influence many other runways, and Prada didn’t abandon those ideas, just as she never really lets go of borderline homely sweaters, here styled under sparkly flapper dresses, and handsome leather or suede car jackets, here tossed over swimming trunks or what have you.

The runway cast — which included actors Troye Sivan, Cailee Spaeny and Mame Bineta Sane — reinforced the feeling of character studies, rather than trend mongering.

After the show, Prada was mobbed by well-wishers and reporters, who lobbed questions like “What is fashion?” and “Are you looking forward to being a grandmother?”

Prada answered them all gamely, sometimes elliptically, but in the end she concluded: “I think that the attention has to be on the person.…Fashion counts for you personally when you want to impress, or you want to be sexy, or you want to be serious.”

Once again, she laid out a host of interesting clothes for whatever mood strikes.

For more PFW reviews, click here.