MIU MIU SPRING/SUMMER 2022 BASIC INSTINCTS

A reaction to and reflection of reality, an economy, a freshness found in iterations of eternal, universal garments. The Spring/Summer 2022 Miu Miu collection by Miuccia Prada is an exercise in referencing and researching reality, using the existing to create the new.

The foundations are classic - trousers, sweaters, shirts, blazers, suits and sheath dresses, absolute archetypes of everyday dress. A new balance of proportion is found through cutting into pieces - retaining the believable character of each, yet altering their relationship with the body. Trousers are cut into abbreviated skirts, sweaters and shirts carved out to reveal the body. Edges are left raw, elements of construction exposed in commemoration of the spontaneity of these actions. The notion of reworking existent pieces extends to a collaboration with New Balance - the 574 sneaker is re-proposed in white, khaki or blue denim, with raw-cut edges.

Embroideries reflect the decoration of night-time attire, embellishing dresses and suits. Everyday alongside every night, the aesthetic language of day and evening dress each serve a purpose and have a meaning within life. An antidote to meaningless novelty, the collection examines fundamental realities of dress, the needs and wants of people from their clothes. It is an amplification of actuality - a focus on reality.

Alongside reality, fantasy: the physical and virtual spaces of the Miu Miu show are punctuated with works by the artist Meriem Bennani, whose body of work explores intimate relationships mediated through the camera. Here, that idea is echoed and overlapped with another interrelation, of women and fashion. Conceived alongside the collection, Bennani commands control of the Miu Miu live stream via a series of filmic artistic interventions starring her own mother. These fantasy sequences are mixed real-time into the broadcast of the show to blur lines between virtual and real.

Underscoring these ideas, the interior of the Palais d’Iena is interrupted rather than transformed. Its architecture remains, a runway devised by AMO snaking through the centre, the audience balanced on Eames office chairs as an echo of the Palais’ continuing function as place of work. In the Palais, Bennani installs binocular- shaped screens to cut through the space, reforming and re-editing the physical experience of the show and projecting her films into real life. As with the clothing of the collection, these filmic cuts create a new work - editing reality, altering perceptions.