Editor’s Notice: We’re kickstarting the autumn 2024 menswear season by including two Miu Miu ready-to-wear collections—spring and fall 1999—to the Vogue Runway archive. These have been the primary two reveals that includes Miu Miu menswear, a line that was energetic for a decade (1998-2008), and round which a nostalgic cult has developed. It’s inconceivable to relive the previous, however documenting it’s a totally different story…. Get pleasure from.
The deck chairs on the fall 2022 Miu Miu present invited a relaxed posture, so if friends didn’t sit up rod-straight when Loic Paulmier (Look 13) appeared; their vogue antenna actually did. Solely a handful of male fashions made their method down the runway, but it surely was sufficient to resurrect the cult of Miu Miu males’s, a line that was launched in 1998 and deserted in 2008. (Apparently, Prada Sport additionally launched for spring 1999.)
There’s been no announcement of a Miu Miu males’s relaunch and no menswear class exists on the model web site, however that hasn’t hindered the tidal wave of nostalgia—on the half of people that knew and cherished the model and others who’re enamored with the thought of it. Each teams pine for the form of garments that transcend fundamental in delicate methods, and symbolize a reverie of unspoiled youth.
Whereas not a “little sister” model to Prada, Miu Miu (a diminutive of Miuccia, the designer’s nickname) was priced decrease and skewed youthful. The magic of the road was and is the way it manages to seize that indefinite, ambiguous, in-between second related to the transition into maturity, whereas on the identical time suggesting uniforms during which it could be navigated. That feeling is current within the first exit from spring 1999, during which James Rousseau wears a blazer over a tie-neck shirt, shorts, and velcro-close sandals. Collectively, the weather someway hyperlink la vie bohème and gorp core with a primary interview/first job twist. “Miu Miu for males remembers Forrest Gump–a really cool Forrest Gump,” was The Toronto Star’s take.
Some writers discovered Miu Miu males’s, particularly early on, to be androgynous. If the ladies’s and males’s garments are very carefully associated right here, so are the fashions of their youth. The male fashions look particularly baby-faced, nearly like Counselors in Coaching, even when they have been dressed extra formally than their feminine counterparts.
That sense of discovering one’s footing, or exploring new terrain, carried over to the gathering’s advert marketing campaign which featured Could Andersen and Rousseau, individually, in a man-made tropical setting outfitted with a supermodern, scientific camper or tent. A form of managed wildness was additionally current within the garments, which straddled work and play, and remodeled extra homey, nation components (fringe, cowboy boots) for the town.
The relevance of Miu Miu’s spring 1999 coed assortment isn’t simply linked to nostalgia for the menswear line, however may present clues about the place vogue’s going. A 12 months after this present was offered, The Every day Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander reported that “the newest spin-off from minimalism has been christened ‘utility stylish’ or ‘the city uniform’ a no-frills, no-fuss working wardrobe that’s as simple as a takeaway and as fast as an e mail. The small print might have come from sportswear, however the interpretation is strictly uptown–clear, crisp, and fashionable. The elements are techno materials and a pared-shown, streamlined silhouette.” These ideas appear to echo New 12 months’s predictions concerning a reboot of gorp core, no?
