A FAVOURITE FASHION BRAND: MIU MIU, MIA BRADFORD.
GENDERLESS GARMENTS: HOW A LUXURY FASHION HOUSE DEFEATS THE BOUNDARIES OF BINARY CLOTHING.
MIU MIU was established in the year 1992, formed from the Italian house of opulence and taste, the Prada group. Based on the personal garments worn by Prada’s CEO Miuccia Prada, the modern subsidiary prides itself on crossing the boundaries of chic style, through the display of bold, extravagant colours to emulate the flair and seductiveness of femininity. Particularly, the FW22 Paris MIU MIU show aligned itself with the modern expectations of genderless apparel. This is exhibited through Miuccias return of Menswear to the MIU MIU collection and implementation of both female and male-gendered models wearing a cross-over of what was once considered a feminine/masculine binary style into the new and improved, definition of genderless fashion. To open the show, the audience was greeted with a stop-motion display where a large clay hand is crushing flowers within its fingertips. One may interpret this as a way for the brand to introduce this contemporary vision for the future of non-binary clothing, as the flower-crushing may imply the destruction of the backwards meaning of femininity and womanhood. As for the collection, the pieces were cleverly designed to convey this modernised image of what is genderless fashion by using male models to present á la mode items like the ballet shoe, pleated micro skirts and low-rise leather trousers. The coalescence of fashion and gender identity is a crucial example of how the industry and social debates can meet in the middle, and MIU MIU’s iconic demonstration of how the two conjoin is a reason why it is my favourite luxury fashion house. Despite previous representations of gender neutrality on the runway from Louis Vuitton’s SS2021 collection and Versace’s memorable Winter collection in Milan 2021, MIU MIU’s take on this major current debate stood out to me as they went beyond the public image with the pieces and models used but expanded the meaning of a “menswear collection” into something for all. As a member of the Gen Z community, gender identity is arguably one of the crucial ways in which a person can express themselves fully, and just like with fashion, there should be no limitations for how one may present themselves. MIU MIU has made a prominent impact on my respect and love for the brand for integrating the image with such an important topic to date.
CITATION:
https://www.nssmag.com/en/fashion/29205/menswear-miu-miu
https://www.honestdigit.com/post/revisit-the-show-with-honest-miu-miu-fw22
https://gothammag.com/gender-neutral-luxury-fashion