“It’s Got Swagger You Don’t See Anywhere Else”: Interview Reviews Miu Miu FW25

TUESDAY 8:12 PM MARCH 11, 2025 PARIS

Leave it to Miuccia Prada to tap heavyweights like Gigi Hadid, Sarah Paulson, and Laura Harrier for the Miu Miu FW25 show, where femininity wasn’t just celebrated, but stripped down to its rudiments. On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Prada sent plaid skirts, shearling coats, and blinged-out socks down the runway to a soundtrack by Clara 3000, ratifying the brand’s status as the go-to house for It Girls from Paris to New York. “Even though it’s giving 1950s,” raved our editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg, “it wasn’t stuck there.” On his way to the next show, he called up our senior editor Taylore Scarabelli to talk about rail-thin baby dolls raiding their grandmother’s closets.

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MEL OTTENBERG: Okay, I’m on my way to the last show of the week. But we’re here talking about Miu Miu, which I just attended in Paris. 

TAYLORE SCARABELLI: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: Surprise, surprise: I loved it.

SCARABELLI: Me too. 

OTTENBERG: That’s boring to say, but it’s true. Wait, I’m looking at my videos right now. I guess it’s all about femininity. It’s all about boobs, but it’s also got a lot of butch stuff.

SCARABELLI: It’s all about bras and socks. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: It was playing with all these different ideas of femininity. So you had, like, really retro stuff, and modern stuff, and butch women, and hyper-feminine women, and a million different gorgeous, rail-thin baby dolls looking so fucking cool. I don’t know who they are, but, ma’am, their hair was done and they looked great.

SCARABELLI: I liked it because like, the trope is always the girl playing dress up in her mom’s closet, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like a more mature woman’s call back to an older idea of femininity. I related it to it in the way of trying to get dressed and put yourself together but you don’t have the right skirt so you just end up wearing some stretchy fast fashion dress with a nice coat and shoes. You put in effort, your hair is done, but you didn’t do it properly and it’s still fucked up. The nails are done, but they look like she painted them in a rush. It’s playing with that messy Miu Miu look we’ve seen the past few seasons, but it felt more earnest.

OTTENBERG: It felt really future to me; even though it’s giving 1950s, it wasn’t stuck there. All the vintage suits, they seem to be constructed in a strange way that was really accentuating the boob. It was a lot of ’50s secretary/tramp/grandma. It’s also giving, like, 90-year-old lady on, like, Rue de Rivoli.

SCARABELLI: 100 percent. And I agree with you on the future thing. A lot of the shows that felt contemporary to me this season seemed to be focusing on some kind of AI narrative, like outrageous silhouettes or sending someone down the runway with a violin on their head. And that’s all fine, but I do think both Miu Miu and Prada are some of the only big brands that play with online culture without having that excessive, over-the-top thing. It’s vintage, but it still feels very now. I think Lotta [Volkova’s] styling has a lot to do with it. 

OTTENBERG: Yeah.

SCARABELLI: Did you see that green nail? It’s so nasty. I can’t get over it. Also, the swishy slacks were really cool.

OTTENBERG: Oh my god. I just loved the slacks. 

SCARABELLI: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: Wait, let me send you this picture. This is when I got really excited too, this person with the amazing brown slacks and brown pointed shoes. It’s just cool.

SCARABELLI: Oh, yes. Also, the faux fur is playing with the mob wife aesthetic in a way that almost feels like she’s making fun of it, but also doing it in the best possible way.

OTTENBERG: I totally hear that. Also the casting, it was like an extreme nepo babies like Lou Doillon and Sunday Rose [Kidman Urban].

SCARABELLI: Is Laura Harrier a nepo baby?

OTTENBERG: She’s not. But she looked amazing.

SCARABELLI: And then there was Nettspend and Cortisa Star, all the viral lil’ Gen Z rappers.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SCARABELLI: That was so cute. I wonder if that was Lotta’s doing, Miss L.A.

OTTENBERG: Yeah.

SCARABELLI: We need to talk about Miss Frizzle, too. That one really bright look with the plaid colorful skirt and the pink sweater and the blonde hair and the secretary glam.

OTTENBERG: Oh my god, I’m staring at it right now. Look at this fucking hair. The giant gold brooch and the knee-high boots with the buckles are such a sensation to me. 

SCARABELLI: You notice the brooch and at first it looks like this shearling jacket or something, but then you’re like, “Wait, this is like a play on a Patagonia fleece.”

OTTENBERG: I see the reference. I know her. It’s like a biker gang girl. It’s not Karlheinz Weinberger, but it’s Karlheinz-adjacent. She doesn’t feel like just a thrift shop girl. There’s also a very Twin Peaks-type of vibe happening. There was a moment that’s very Pacific Northwest. And again, we’re two Americans talking about this show in France made by an Italian designer, so I don’t really know what the exact reference is.

SCARABELLI: I’m a Pacific North Westerner, I will say. I’m from Vancouver. Wait, I can’t believe you got Lotta to reveal the silk cone bra on your Instagram story. That was gorgeous.

OTTENBERG: You know that I desperately love a cone bra. 

SCARABELLI: I do. 

OTTENBERG: The music was quite good, too. I saw Clara 3000, who did the music, right after the show, and she told me it was a mix of ’60s elevator music and like, early Kraftwerk-era stuff. There was disco dance place called Creamcheese, and this is what the music was like at Creamcheese, I guess.

SCARABELLI: I love that. Sorry to be jumping all over the place, but I have to say the styling was also very much in conversation with the Instagram girlies, because they had Amelia Gray in that gorgeous black wool coat, but she’s wearing the Miu Miu glasses with the sticker still on so it says “Miu Miu” on the lens. The insta-styling is trickling up onto the runway, which I think is very cool.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, it’s definitely got a swagger that you don’t see anywhere else.

SCARABELLI: Also, can I ask you how you feel about the return of purple? I’m loving it.

OTTENBERG: I love it. I have a custom-made purple rug. I was like, “Oh, no one’s going to do purple. I’ll get a purple rug.” And now purple’s the thing. Oh my god—this girl. I don’t know who she is, but I’m texting her to you right now. 

SCARABELLI: Mel, this look is you if you were a Miu Miu woman. You would wear this, I feel.

OTTENBERG: If I were a size negative two woman, that would be me. [Laughs]

SCARABELLI: Very! I also appreciate, because you mentioned the vintage thing, that you can make your version of this look on a dime.

OTTENBERG: Absolutely.

 

SCARABELLI: There’s something for everyone.