020: Letter of Recommendation

Goodies from Miu Miu's Spring/Summer 1998, 2003 & 2005 collections

Aug 08, 2024

I spend a ludicrous amount of time excavating fashion resale sites. This is primarily because if I get something in my head, I have to dig till I’m down to the bone; I need to know and see and learn and consume all there is about a particular subject (or season). During my digs (sorry, I recently watched La Chimera and am full of archaeology puns), I often come across fantastic pieces that aren’t for me – maybe it’s not in my size, or a cut that doesn’t suit my body type, or because I can’t afford it and cannot in good faith buy every single pretty thing I came across, no matter how much I want it, as I am not yet a total madwoman. But what’s not mine could be yours!

So! I’ll be dipping a toe into the world of shopping recommendations as I want to share the really cool things I find with really cool people who may not have the time or ability or find it far too overwhelming to embark on a journey into the bowels of fashion resale. Perhaps my procrastination methods may benefit you. When I’m browsing for secondhand clothing and accessories, I typically fixate on a particular brand, collection, or era. What prompts these fixations? It could be a line about Dries Van Noten citing the 1940s as an inspiration for his Spring 2016 collection and suddenly I’m on Etsy digging through cotton button-front dresses from the 40’s, or I could be drinking a cup of water and then I’m on Depop searching for bustiers from Miu Miu’s Spring 1998 collection (you’re in luck today!). Suffice to say, what I come up with will be grouped accordingly for minimal chaos.

On this episode of Fixations: Recently I’ve been revisiting Miu Miu’s collections from the early 1990s into the millennium. I love Miuccia of all eras, but I find that the earlier collections tell a more vulnerable story of the designer’s own youth, the contradiction of her bourgeois upbringing and communist ideals. In past interviews, Prada has talked about the solemnity of her childhood dresses, sparse and devoid of colour and print. The Spring 1998, 2003 and 2005 collections, for example, reject of the banality of good taste and mundane hues in favor of boisterous colours and silhouettes that sashay, an Yves Saint Laurent sexuality in undone bodices (whose designs Prada wore to communist rallies) and 1970’s hectic wallpaper prints. The latter two collections coincide with my own adolescence, a time of little rebellions and coming into my femininity, so I think of them rather fondly.

And now, from across the World Wide Web…

Miu Miu Spring 1998