Mel Ottenberg and Jeremy O. Harris Spiral About Miu Miu’s Muses

The Miu Miu FW23 show brought together Ethel Cain, Mia Goth, Emma Corrin, and Zaya Wade for a kink-meets-Carhartt fantasy that had EIC Mel Ottenberg and Jeremy O. Harris spiraling about a peep-toe revival, A Streetcar Named Desire-inspired negligees, and Miuccia Prada’s uncanny ability to get better with age.

———

MEL OTTENBERG: We’re in an undisclosed location, talking about the Miu Miu show which just ended and it was just so good. 

JEREMY O. HARRIS: It was amazing. 

OTTENBERG: I always say that, but man this was good. People were pretty blown away by the show.

HARRIS: It felt like I was at one of the best new plays I’ve seen in a while. It was like actual theater.

OTTENBERG: Actual theater. Let’s name drop the celebrities in the show. Mia Goth opened, looking incredible. The whole room was silent, just watching Mia Goth looking unbelievable.

HARRIS: She took the air out of the room in the best way.

OTTENBERG: In the best way.

HARRIS: She walked down the street like a mother on the edge of crisis, hair askew, and immediately you knew the story.

OTTENBERG: Emma Corrin closed the show, also looking fab. And we have a lot to talk about in the middle.

HARRIS: Zaya Wade just walked her first show.

OTTENBERG: Zaya Wade, and Ethel Cain, looking great with a bang. The thing that was really exciting for me was hosiery. I love the idea of nude hose. I think they are the hottest thing ever, nobody ever fucks with them. Thank you to Lotta Volkova.

HARRIS: Lotta really did something wild by stuffing shirts into hose. That was just crazy–

OTTENBERG: It was crazy and it worked so well. I also just loved the extremes of the retro lady pencil skirt situation, the peep toe. 

HARRIS: Yes.

OTTENBERG: They brought a peep toe back. I hate a peep toe. But I love these.

 

HARRIS: And there’s a lot of ladies who left the house so frazzled they forgot to put on pants

OTTENBERG: It was really giving me many, many notes of Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy.

HARRIS: Yes, seminal film.

OTTENBERG: I mentioned The Paperboy to Lotta [Volkova] afterwards, and she’s never seen the film, but I said it’s a very high compliment coming from me because Nicole Kidman.

HARRIS: We also love Lee Daniels.

OTTENBERG: But also it’s giving Erewhon. They did Erewhon look after Erewhon look. They mixed this retro chic in with literal Erewhon outfits and we ate it up with a spoon.

HARRIS: They also had literal boys in the show.

OTTENBERG: And then they had many boys. One could say, if it wasn’t such a brilliantly done collection, that it was all over the place. But you can see the vision, you can see that they’re doing multiple things at multiple times for multiple different people. You can be in one mood, your Erewhon mood, and they’ve got that. You can be in this lady mood, they’ve got that. You could be in the Cat on A Hot Tin Roof negligee about to rip off-

HARRIS: Cat on A Hot Tin Roof negligee, yes!

OTTENBERG: And they’ve got that for you too, and they’ve got this really kinky hosiery. And they’ve also got your Carhartt guy, your workwear guy. And none of that stuff makes sense together necessarily, but so what? We live in a crazy world filled with references and why choose one when you can choose five and do them brilliantly?

HARRIS: And also, the thing was, have you ever seen the Jasmine Masters video where she says “Get a job” challenge?

OTTENBERG: No.

HARRIS: Oh it’s so good, we’ll watch the video afterwards. But it felt like Miuccia gave everyone that challenge. Like, “get a job.”

OTTENBERG: Get a job, go back to the office, people. And the office is great, I love going to the office.

HARRIS: But the overall theme was that women have to work and it’s really stressful, but we’re doing what we need to do. Some men work too, and when they work they look cute just like the ladies do. But also, everyone looks confused about everything, because we’re coming back to work after surviving hell. And that’s what they look like, they look like they are going back to work after surviving hell.

OTTENBERG: Yes, but they look great doing it. The peep toe, the mules. Great peep toe mules! Nobody has ever heard me saying that. No assistant of mine has ever heard me talk about some peep toe ever. But I really fuck with those peep toes. I really love a nude hose, I love a sheer hose. Amelia Gray told me that each model only had one pair of hose, so they were doing it so daintily and it was really scary.

HARRIS: There were a couple of people who had scratches in their hose.

OTTENBERG: Well, that’s the thing about hosiery, you know?

HARRIS: There’s runs in them stockings.

OTTENBERG: Yes, runs are hot.

HARRIS: Let’s talk about some of the coats.

OTTENBERG: The corduroy, corduroy, corduroy, corduroy coats. Corduroy. 

HARRIS: I really died, 65 looks–

OTTENBERG: Big show. Long show.

HARRIS: And I could have stayed there even longer.

OTTENBERG: I could have stayed longer. The corduroy is brilliant, brilliant.

HARRIS: Also, the cast of the show was phenomenal the entire way through. Not just because of the celebrities.

OTTENBERG: There’s corduroy hot pants, too. I love this dress. This is actually more Blanche DuBois.

HARRIS: Blanche! Streetcar Named Desire.

OTTENBERG: It’s very Streetcar. Look seven’s Streetcar hot. Fuck, it’s great. Look eight, wow, so cool. But Look eight isn’t one I want to be talking about because you could be talking about look nine. I mean, oh my god.

HARRIS: Look nine, with the cardigan stuffed, all the cardigan outfits pulled over make it look like when you put your face on a copy machine.

OTTENBERG: Wait, yes. She’s giving the secretary in Arrested Development and making it fashion. But then you’ve got, Look 10 is the absolute most stunning New York, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, running errands.

HARRIS: She goes to Barnard.

OTTENBERG: It’s a Barnard girl. She’s a smart girl, she’s a classy girl. And then you’ve got this floozy of the next look. And they are both brilliant together.

HARRIS: Look one, she’s running to get her third glass of wine during lunch. Like, her shoes are undone.

OTTENBERG: Oh my god, Look 12. Every look is so riveting. You’ve got a whole sheer story. Mia Goth looking so sickening. Pearl. Obsessed.

HARRIS: You really die for Mia Goth.

OTTENBERG: I always die for Mia Goth, I mean, beloved girl. Pearl, etc.

HARRIS: She’s the OG Miu Miu muse. 

OTTENBERG: She’s a real OG. Well, she’s not the OG Miu Miu muse because they’ve been through a million Miu Miu muses, but she owns the “being the muse” of the Miu, right?

HARRIS: Yes!

OTTENBERG: Look 22 is heaven.

HARRIS: Everything.

OTTENBERG: And you know what? I was definitely at this Prada show in standing room at some point, you know what I mean? When these moments happened in the past, it was the beginning of Lara Stone. Also, Look 21, I think, was when the hosiery first started coming. I mean, this look is so sick!

HARRIS: My question for Miuccia is, how is she getting better with age? It’s really wild that as she matures in her craft, she can so completely and totally own a thing in a way that I think people often can’t. Zaya [Wade]!

OTTENBERG: Zaya. 

HARRIS: Looking stunning.

OTTENBERG: Looking so cool. Look 26.

HARRIS: I love that Zaya looks like a little girl who jumped into her mom’s closet a bit. Her mom was like, “you know what, you can wear that to church with me,” you know what I mean? And she looks stunning. I love the dead-eyed stares that all the girls were asked to give.

OTTENBERG: The body types on this runway looked great. Meanwhile, Look 34 is heaven for boy’s look.

HARRIS: Look, that’s me in 2024. 

OTTENBERG: I think it’s a dream men’s look.

HARRIS: Now this is when the women start forgetting their pants. Look, there’s 37.

OTTENBERG: Yea, she’s forgotten her pants. I mean, this is so cool and so fun. 41 is a good, “oops, I forgot my pants.” And you can’t really tell in this photo but she’s wearing the perfect sheer green stocking to match her outfit.

HARRIS: This one had my favorite walk, 42. One of my favorite walks on the show.

OTTENBERG: Anyway, Miuccia, I guess, does get better. As someone who has been a fan for a long time and has been going to Miu Miu shows for a really long time, Miu Miu is constantly reinventing itself. Like, if you look at pictures of Chloe Sevigny and Kate Moss being these girls at Miu Miu in like, the 1994 show, it’s the same kind of clothes. They remix it and remix it, but it’s not just styling. It’s remodeled, remixing, recoloring, redoing–

HARRIS: These leather coats.

OTTENBERG: It’s all sort of the same genius thing that they do all the time. Oh my god, Look 48 dude. That’s so cool.

HARRIS: And that’s top-tier styling. Most of the girls can’t style like this.

OTTENBERG: Lotta’s one of the best, she is fucking awesome. Look at Look 50. Look at Ethel just giving it out.

HARRIS: And the hair, the hair. And Ethel looked like she stepped out of a Todd Haynes movie. And she has found herself on a Gus Van Sant set, and she’s like, how did I end up here?

OTTENBERG: Oh yes, Ethel. Oh my god, Look 54. I love it, it’s so weird.

HARRIS: Avril Lavigne’s little brother.

OTTENBERG: Avril’s little brother indeed.

HARRIS: Miss lady in look 57. She’s put together.

OTTENBERG: Emma [Corrin] looking fab.

HARRIS: Yea, Emma’s walk was crazy, it was so good.

OTTENBERG: Emma’s walk was crazy cool. Alright, that’s it. There you have it. Boom. Miu Miu slayed. Absolutely murdered.