Closing out Paris Fashion Week and the Fall/Winter 2026 season is Miu Miu, which showed today in Paris with a collection that appears to be a perfect synthesis between the brand’s DNA and the contemporary moment we are living in. The return to the essential that we have seen emerge this season, for example in Alaïa and Gucci, finds further development here. But, as often happens in fashion, similar motivations produce very different results.
For Pieter Mulier at Alaïa, simplicity represented a gesture of reaction to a complex and charged historical and socio-political moment. Even in relation to his imminent farewell to the fashion house, the choice was to bid farewell with a discreet and less noisy collection. Gucci, on the other hand, used the essential as a tool to reconstruct a visual identity and imagery: here, reduction served to bring clothes back to their archetype.
With Miuccia Prada, the logic is different. The essential here becomes a blank canvas on which to project her deepest universe: that of the everyday, but above all of the inclusion of an “uncomfortable” factor, of the element that disturbs and breaks harmony. This disruptive element is nothing new for the brand; on the contrary, it is an integral part of its genesis, but in this collection in particular, the contrast between this element and the simplicity of the lines makes the whole resonate as extremely topical.
The fashion show takes place in a setting reminiscent of an autumn forest, bathed in dark tones. In this setting parade models with an almost elfin appearance, a dimension that never really becomes fairy-tale or ethereal, however, but rather maintains an archaic and deliberately dark flavor.
And it is this tension that generates the dominant feeling of the collection: a subtle discomfort, a kind of visual glitch that runs through all the looks. This “off” element manifests itself in several details:
hair pulled back in a disheveled way, stopped by thin zig-zag headbands; deliberately unbalanced silhouettes; unexpected combinations; and in general an outfit construction that always seems slightly off-axis or a nonsense, such as the combination of open sandals on heavy jackets.
The common thread of the collection is precisely this: imperfection as a language, the disturbance that animates every look with reality. The return to simplicity, which in Miu Miu acts as a counterpart to this disturbance is first of all translated into the babydoll dresses, repeated in different variations: sleeveless or long-sleeved, in leather or in deliberately crumpled light fabrics. Alongside these appear suits with short jackets paired with long, straight pants, slightly flared toward the bottom. Outerwear is few: mostly jackets in technical fabric with fur trim, offered in midi or cropped versions.
The absolute protagonist is leather, declined in suits, jackets, and dresses.
Among the accessories, hats stand out, especially light fur colbs, embellished on the back with gems and rhinestones, and sunglasses with gradient lenses in warm tones. Gems and rhinestones return toward the end, embroidered on tops or short organza dresses, and in maxi earrings.
A collection this one that, whether one likes it or not, is positioned, in my opinion, as a strong stance, a reaffirmation of one’s position vis-à-vis the fashion scene, the current world, but even more perhaps vis-à-vis its own origins.
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