In a world increasingly attuned to sustainability and the art of storytelling through fashion, the collaboration between Catherine Martin and Miu Miu is a moment of cinematic style meeting couture consciousness. The celebrated costume and production designer—best known for her work on The Great Gatsby and Elvis—joins forces with Miuccia Prada to create an upcycled capsule that reimagines the elegance of the 1920s French Riviera through a modern lens. This collection isn’t just about beautiful clothes; it’s about history, emotion, and the delicate balance between nostalgia and reinvention.
A Friendship Forged in Creativity
The collaboration between Catherine Martin and Miuccia Prada didn’t come out of nowhere—it was born of creative kinship and mutual admiration. When Prada reached out with the idea of designing a capsule for Miu Miu, Martin saw the opportunity not only to explore fashion outside of film but also to delve into her deep love of history and design. Her immediate inspiration? The interwar period in the South of France, a time and place where artists, intellectuals, and free spirits converged in pursuit of beauty and liberation.
Martin was drawn to the understated glamour of the Riviera in the 1920s—think androgynous silhouettes, striped knits, linen suits, and beachside elegance that felt effortlessly chic. It was a time when expats like F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald brought their bohemian ethos to the Mediterranean coast, living lives both unruly and stylish. “It was about freedom,” Martin reflects. “The idea of escaping convention—social, gendered, creative—was at the heart of that era.”
The Allure of the Past, Reinvented
True to its vision, the Martin x Miu Miu capsule doesn’t replicate 1920s fashion so much as it reinterprets it. The pieces have a timeless quality, yet they pulse with modern relevance. Using deadstock fabrics and vintage garments, the collection is not just a tribute to bygone glamour—it’s a statement on fashion’s ability to renew itself with meaning and purpose.
Each look tells a story. A softly tailored blazer, slightly oversized, nods to the gender-fluid elegance of the Riviera artists. Delicately embroidered silk camisoles evoke a languid sensuality that transcends eras. There are also seaside-ready separates—crisp linen trousers, striped cardigans, and breezy shirtdresses—that speak to both leisure and sophistication.
Martin’s filmic touch is unmistakable. “I always think in narrative,” she admits. “Even in fashion, there’s a world-building component—who is this person wearing it, what does their life look like, what emotion are they trying to express?” Her background in costume design lends a richness to the clothes, layering each garment with imagined backstories and cinematic fantasy.
Sustainability as Storytelling
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the collaboration is its upcycled ethos. Miu Miu’s Upcycled initiative, launched in 2020, aims to give new life to vintage garments by remaking them through a modern, artisanal lens. For Martin, this approach to design is both creatively rewarding and morally necessary.
“We live in a world where overproduction is the norm,” she says. “To be able to work with what already exists—and to transform it into something beautiful and personal—is not only responsible but deeply inspiring.” Her process involved sorting through vintage pieces and discarded fabrics, finding those with unique character, and reinventing them with embroidery, tailoring, and attention to narrative detail.
It’s not just about reducing waste—it’s about deepening fashion’s emotional impact. When a garment has lived another life before reaching you, Martin suggests, it carries with it invisible threads of memory and spirit. “You’re wearing a story,” she says. “That’s powerful.”
The Miu Miu Woman Reimagined
This capsule also helps expand our understanding of the Miu Miu woman. Traditionally portrayed as youthful, rebellious, and intellectually chic, she now takes on a more nuanced persona: reflective, self-aware, with a sense of history and purpose. Martin’s designs make space for that evolution, allowing a more introspective and quietly confident character to emerge.
“She’s someone who’s lived a little,” Martin says. “Maybe she’s traveled the world, or maybe she’s just traveled inward. Either way, she’s interested in more than appearances. She dresses for herself.” The capsule’s relaxed yet tailored shapes, tactile textures, and subtle storytelling appeal to someone who finds luxury not in logos, but in craftsmanship and intent.
In many ways, the collaboration mirrors Martin herself—creative, thoughtful, a little romantic. The woman behind some of cinema’s most iconic costume moments brings that same emotional sensitivity to her fashion debut. And much like her characters on screen, the women in her Miu Miu collection are complex, spirited, and effortlessly stylish.
A Seamless Fusion of Art Forms
This partnership between Martin and Miu Miu is more than a fashion moment—it’s a seamless fusion of costume, design, and philosophy. It invites us to see clothing not just as trend or utility, but as visual poetry. Like the best cinema, this collection stirs something emotional and intangible: longing, nostalgia, the thrill of reinvention.
By combining her eye for storytelling with Miu Miu’s design legacy, Martin has created something that feels singular yet universal. Whether you’re slipping on a hand-embroidered camisole or a structured vintage coat, you’re stepping into a dream curated by one of the most evocative visual minds of our time.
Memory, Reimagined
Catherine Martin’s collaboration with Miu Miu is a love letter—to fashion, to the past, to creative freedom. It shows that style isn’t just about what we wear—it’s about what we remember, what we imagine, and how we choose to live in the world. This upcycled capsule speaks softly but resonates deeply: a collection rooted in history, charged with emotion, and destined to linger in memory.
