Miu Miu Spring 1999 Ready-to-Wear

Editor’s Note: We’re kickstarting the fall 2024 menswear season by adding two Miu Miu ready-to-wear collections—spring and fall 1999—to the Vogue Runway archive. These were the first two shows featuring Miu Miu menswear, a line that was active for a decade (1998-2008), and around which a nostalgic cult has developed. It’s impossible to relive the past, but documenting it is a different story…. Enjoy.

The deck chairs at the fall 2022 Miu Miu show invited a relaxed posture, so if guests didn’t sit up rod-straight when Loic Paulmier (Look 13) appeared; their fashion antenna certainly did. Only a handful of male models made their way down the runway, but it was enough to resurrect the cult of Miu Miu men’s, a line that was introduced in 1998 and abandoned in 2008. (Interestingly, Prada Sport also launched for spring 1999.)

There’s been no announcement of a Miu Miu men’s relaunch and no menswear category exists on the brand website, but that hasn’t hindered the tidal wave of nostalgia—on the part of people who knew and loved the brand and others who are enamored with the idea of it. Both groups pine for the kind of clothes that go beyond basic in subtle ways, and represent a reverie of unspoiled youth.

While not a “little sister” brand to Prada, Miu Miu (a diminutive of Miuccia, the designer’s nickname) was priced lower and skewed younger. The magic of the line was and is how it manages to capture that indefinite, ambiguous, in-between moment associated with the transition into adulthood, while at the same time suggesting uniforms in which it might be navigated. That feeling is present in the first exit from spring 1999, in which James Rousseau wears a blazer over a tie-neck shirt, shorts, and velcro-close sandals. Together, the elements somehow link la vie bohème and gorp core with a first interview/first job twist. “Miu Miu for men recalls Forrest Gump–a very cool Forrest Gump,” was The Toronto Star’s take.

Some writers found Miu Miu men’s, especially early on, to be androgynous. If the women’s and men’s clothes are very closely related here, so are the models in their youth. The male models look especially baby-faced, almost like Counselors in Training, even if they were dressed more formally than their female counterparts.

That sense of finding one’s footing, or exploring new terrain, carried over to the collection’s ad campaign which featured May Andersen and Rousseau, separately, in a man-made tropical setting outfitted with a supermodern, clinical camper or tent. A kind of controlled wildness was also present in the clothes, which straddled work and play, and transformed more homey, country elements (fringe, cowboy boots) for the city.

The relevance of Miu Miu’s spring 1999 coed collection isn’t just connected to nostalgia for the menswear line, but might provide clues about where fashion’s going. A year after this show was presented, The Daily Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander reported that “the latest spin-off from minimalism has been christened ‘utility chic’ or ‘the urban uniform’ a no-frills, no-fuss working wardrobe that is as easy as a takeaway and as quick as an email. The details may have come from sportswear, but the interpretation is strictly uptown–clean, crisp, and modern. The ingredients are techno fabrics and a pared-shown, streamlined silhouette.” These thoughts seem to echo New Year’s predictions regarding a reboot of gorp core, no?