Miu Miu: Alpine Amazons in Cortina d’Ampezzo

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Mar 9, 2021

Global warming or not, designers seem obsessed with winter snow this season, few more so than Miuccia Prada, whose latest collection for Miu Miu, unveiled on Tuesday, was shot in the mountain fastness of the Alps.

Opening with silvery blue puffer pantsuits and knit wool-covered puffers in great graphic stripes, as her cast marched around the vast upper slopes of the Cortina d’Ampezzo resort. Though the brand is Italian, it traditionally unveils its collections in Paris Fashion Week, this season like all but two brands with an audience-free event.
 
Most of the models in crocheted masks, knit ski helmets, thick beanies and wooly granny tights in pink or mustard. Even more in shaggy moon boots in Yeti white; raccoon stripes and grizzly-bear brown.

La Miuccia’s Alpine Amazons managing to look alluring and hip in oversized matelassé après-ski jumpsuits in beige or anoraks dusted on the shoulders with strass and crystals.

Trudging past ski race markers with the show logo attired, believe it or not, in padded pastel nylon swimsuits or uber-thick mohair mini cocktail dresses.

A half dozen eventually perched on a mound before the soaring cliffs of the Dolomites, beautifully lensed by cinematographer Benjamin Kracun.
 
Entitled 'Brave Hearts,' as well it should be, seeing as several gals – members of a mythical Miu Miu Mountain Club - marched across the show in barely-there crocheted picnic dresses.
 
Crows flying before the towering mountain ranges. A pair of wolves appeared to follow them, albeit more likely they were captured by a drone camera.
 
Eventually the chic skiers finding their way home in western shearling jackets; boiled-wool safari jackets and suede and knit cardigans, the mood suddenly shifting from the Alps to the Rockies.

With ski lifts closed throughout most of Europe, the 10-minute show video recalling the longing, the need even, that so many people feel to ski, board and commute in the high altitudes each winter. All contrasted with the cabin fever of Covid.
 
Yet again when night fell, the Miu Miu maiden, or make that femme fatale, reasserted herself. The devil-may-care Parisienne with Italian pizzazz that is the heart of Miu Miu, dressed in crystal-embroidered cashmere cocktails, circling around a huge bonfire - the Heraclitan fire of fashion, and Miuccia.
 
As a result, in the 38 years of its existence as a separate collection from Prada this will be remembered as one of the richest from Miuccia Prada, still more than capable of setting a fashion agenda that millions will follow.