PARIS FASHION WEEK SPRING/SUMMER 2026: DAY 8
editors ELIANA CASA, MAREK BARTEK, MARIA MOTA and MARIE-PAULINE CESARI
MIU MIU
review by MAREK BARTEK
all images MIU MIU provided by the brand
Before becoming fashion royalty, Ms Miuccia Prada got a degree in Political Science, was a part of the Communist Party in Italy and a vocal feminist often joining protests for women’s rights. Though now a fully realised designer, Ms Prada has never shied away from being political, and in much of her work, we can see commentary on what’s happening in the world. It may not be as obvious as a graphic tee but it’s most certainly there, in a more subtle, often slightly ironic way.
Miu Miu’s latest collection, named ‘At Work’, was no exception. While everyone’s leaning towards the more gothic, Marie Antoinette-esque aesthetic with a hint of wealth, Ms Prada offered a collective reality check with a runway inspired by working women and the on garment unifying them — an apron. As she shared backstage: “We in fashion always talk about glamour or rich people, but we also have to recognise that life is very difficult. And to me the apron contains the real difficult life of women in history, from factories to the home.”
The set of the show was staged to resemble some sort of a factory canteen, with red rubber flooring and guests being seated on green and blue Formica tables. To the sound of minimalist electronic music, the first look came out — actor Sandra Hüller wearing a blue apron cinched at the waist. The rest of the outfit was composed of a dark, muted blue utility jacket with leather collar and cuffs, layered over a light grey V-neck knit, light blue shirt and a colourful purple, absinthe, brown, and red scarf, and paired with stiff trousers and safety boots.
Despite the first look leaning heavily into the female workforce in the secondary industry sector, Miu Miu didn’t stay only there and explored the complexities of women’s hard work and its significance. As the show progressed, the typical “worker” canvas apron slowly shifted to other forms of skirt-like waiter aprons, pinafores, taffeta and leather aprons, at times with ruffles adding a feminine touch, floral wrap-overs, and lastly, more decorative, perforated aprons.
Ms Prada referenced women not only “at work” but also at home. Women who are often deemed invisible: employees across industries, including services and fashion, mothers and grandmothers, who have dedicated their lives to better the lives of others. Work turned into an expression of effort, a symbol of care and love, a reflection of independence, and a means of agency.
But while the collection carried a strong message of honouring working women, it also critiqued and raised questions regarding class divisions in society, fetishisation of the apron as a symbol of submission, and luxury fashion’s tendency to borrow aesthetics without actively improving the realities of the women who often produce its goods. Ms Prada knows it very well, so when asked about it, she admitted that translating aprons into fashion was challenging, concluding: “At the moment, I’m particularly sensitive to that. But I use the instrument I have.”
THOM BROWNE
review VERONICA TLAPANCO SZABÓ
all images THOM BROWNE via vogue.com
We come in peace, declares Thom Browne with his latest collection, after which we’ve been transported somewhere deep into space, light years away. The extraterrestrial journey began at the late Karl Lagerfeld’s former home, the lavish mansion on Rue de l’Université de Paris, Hotel Pozzo de Borgo. Nothing says more alien than the most American of American designers presenting in this opulent 18th-century style interior featuring opulent crystal chandeliers, jacquard wallpaper and gold panelling. Overall the show was wildly entertaining to watch and the witty fantasy poured into its conception screamed out with each look. There was not just one otherworldly reference hidden in the soundtrack but two! The first was the eerie electronic sound of the radiophonic theme of Dr. Who and the Close Encounters music from Steven Spielberg’s movie.
Onto the collection itself, Browne’s show opened with a troop of silver haired and skinned servicemen dressed in the trademark gray tailoring we’ve all come to love! Bedazzled alien heads adorn the jacket’s pockets, throughout the hallway they randomly hand out cards to those in the audience, imbuing them with an inner circle knowledge that is never revealed. The first look emerges from the smoke with a new jacket shape, in gray seersucker with a curving shoulderline and more leg and arm holes than we can count. This jacket was then worked/reworked a million different ways throughout the different looks all while retaining that Browne-coded East Coast Americana repp striped feel. Just when it gets too serious or too contained Browne slaps a giant sparkly green alien head on it, or in a more kooky turn of events other models walked out with a "tin foil hat" a head covering that is believed to shield the brain from electromagnetic radiation or mind control (necessary gear for the forthcoming invasion). More of our favourite looks featured, leather dog bags, drawn on naked torsos, silver rings pierced into jackets and tweeds light enough to float into the stratosphere.
The craftsmanship of Browne’s atelier is unmistakable in all the looks and made even more prominent in the curving jackets, bubble skirts and a series of coats that looked like they had been dipped in a constellation of stars. The second to last look really rocked our world with a dress that looked like it was dipped in liquid mercury generating a gorgeous silver cascade before our eyes. After all the overstimulation between all the different debuts, shows and presentations, it was so nice to board a space ship and be taken away for even just an hour by this ecstatically fun show that welcomed quirkyness and joy.