
When Miuccia Prada reached out to her friend Catherine Martin and suggested that they collaborate on a capsule collection for Miu Miu, Martin immediately thought of the graceful, supremely sporty, sometimes slightly androgynous fashions you might have seen in the South of France in the 1920s. “It was this idea of the world between the wars,” Martin muses. “You have a lot of expatriate artists like the Fitzgeralds going to live on the Riviera because it was inexpensive, and the weather was beautiful, and you got to escape to a more hedonistic place where lots of things were possible.”
Martin, a much-lauded costume and production designer (four Academy Awards! six BAFTAs! a Tony!), has been escaping the rules for decades. She had also worked with Prada before—on costumes for The Great Gatsby and Elvis, both directed by her husband, Baz Luhrmann. (Martin is currently working with him on an upcoming film about Joan of Arc.) She was instantly taken with the idea of Upcycled by Miu Miu, the series of special collections first launched in 2020 that have included reworked secondhand dresses, a collaboration with Levi’s, and a group of denim and patched handbags. The far-from-modest proposal informing Upcycled by Miu Miu is its commitment to circular consumption—and doesn’t it make perfect sense that this brand, so beloved by young consumers, would take a stand on an issue so close to their hearts? Who says being glamorous means you have to be wasteful?
Even though the project is fiercely forward-facing, Martin looked into the mirror of the past for inspiration. She gleefully embraced upcycled jersey and denim, sourced from vintage markets all over the world, along with gossamer lace rescued from pre-loved lingerie, and employed these fabrics in everything from a rowing blazer fit for punting on the Cam to a sailor-collar jacket slated for Tadzio in Death in Venice.
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