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Miu Miu: Innocence Unbound

Naivety, a rare commodity in our knowing age, was at the heart of the latest women’s ready-to-wear collection from Miu Miu, staged Wednesday night, Oct. 7, in a grand Paris mansion.

Yet it was naivety with a rare thought-out sophistication, where the most striking and elegant of dresses were made primarily of childish fabrics printed with drawings of sleeping cats, wee dogs, swallows and sleeping nudes. Models had pre-teen braids, and wide-eyed expressions heightened by huge faux eyelashes.

But Miu Miu’s designer Miuccia Prada combined these elements astutely with waist bands in cotton crepe pants suits, sleeves of elegant cocktail dresses and striking platform shoes, a look sure to inspire a new fashion rage.

With each look the collection grew more mature, as the designer added appliqué cut-outs and gradually teased more crystals onto nude-colored mesh tops and dresses. The focus on the bosom added to the twisted sex appeal of the clothes.

So, even if sweet and unspoiled, the mood was elegant, an arty meeting where the clothes made the models look like intellectually curious young ladies not light-headed shopaholics, a look that would surely appeal to Miu Miu's audience, which included Kate Moss and Renee Zellweger.

“Challenging innocence; working out what it means to be a woman in this media-obsessed age,” explained Miuccia Prada, sipping a glass of pink champagne.

Thoroughly original, the collection did nonetheless cause some consternation from the simple, and evident fact, that it frequently recalled the designer’s other collection, Prada, which she showed in Milan.

Unique among all major European and American fashion houses, Prada has attempted to create two fashion and accessories collections of similar stature and price. Nearly everyone else has a signature collection and a more modest range, such as Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani, or Calvin Klein and CK.

Miuccia Prada has largely managed to succeed in her novel strategy, but increasingly the differences between Miu Miu and Prada have blurred, and it’s often hard to work out the demarcation between the two concepts, something the designer herself concedes.

“I don’t really think, 'this is Prada, that is Miu Miu.' It’s more I’ve just finished the work on one collection, let’s start to work on the next,” she said backstage.

But even if increasingly similar, the sheer élan of this latest Miu Miu show made it one of the dozen most relevant in the 400-show and four-city marathon season that ended today in Paris.

* Miu Miu: Clear as the Driven Gauze		* A Very Betsey Birthday Bash * Martha Davis: Industrial Design Meets Shoes