Miu Miu Upcycled by Catherine Martin
Catherine Martin leads the new Miu Miu Upcycled collection accompanied by her debut short film “Grande Envie” and campaign photography by Michella Bredahl.
Miu Miu collaborates with four-times Academy Award winning costume-, production- and set-designer Catherine Martin on a special collection for Miu Miu Upcycled, which also marks Martin’s directorial debut with a talent-rich short film entitled Grande Envie.
Launched in 2020, Miu Miu Upcycled is a series of special collections of vintage pieces reworked and transformed by Miu Miu, carefully sourced from stores and markets focused on vintage clothing around the world, created to promote circular design practices. The project began with a selection of vintage dresses, reinterpreted with Miu Miu’s aesthetic codes. Inspired by circular business models, the project develops a contemporary cultural attitude by giving new life to pre-owned and pre-loved clothes.
Martin draws inspiration from that historical haven for artists and writers all looking for escape and creative freedom. In particular, Martin reveals, the 1920s photographs of Jacques Henri Lartigue - which captured fleeting modern life, only to be discovered in the 1960s - have shaped the aesthetics of her Miu Miu Upcycled collection. “It draws together things that don’t necessarily belong together: lingerie with striped t-shirts, denim with eveningwear and rowing blazers,” says Martin. “There are clashes of the pretty and the vulgar but brought together in a beautiful way, just like it was in the 1920s and 1930s. What fascinates me about the collection is this constant juxtaposition of the utilitarian and the precious.”
Contrasts define the tailoring: 20s and 30s bias cutting to make gowns from t-shirts; male underwear under female underwear married to make an asexual exterior garment; denim jeans and plain tees become wide beach trousers paired with an overprinted foulard halter top composed of vintage scarves; soft tailoring (lace) set against hard tailoring (a suit) which accentuate one another sensually. “These looks speak to the nautical hedonistic beach culture,” Martin reveals, “which were represented so vividly in the photos of the period.”
When it comes to her approach, Martin was fascinated by Miu Miu Upcycled collections and the ethos of changing the meaning of a piece of clothing by using it in a completely different way. Her way of seeing this endeavor through storytelling was also - like the Countess character in her short film - “the past haunting the present.” Martin believes that, “Miu Miu Upcycled gives new life to old clothes, and in the process, transforms them into the ultimate luxury, where love and attention makes something more precious than it was before.”
The new collection comes to life through the lens of Michella Bredahl’s impactful campaign photography. Bredahl captures the languid and listless mood on set during the late afternoon sun. The actors and models take over the chateau like errant spirits haunting bedrooms, stairwells, deckchairs and faded gardens. A sense of youthful life seeking unexpected encounters. The campaign reflects how the past, present and future remain mysterious to every age.
Asked about her three-decade long working relationship with Miuccia Prada, Catherine Martin replies, “It works so well because we are all interested in a rigorous and exacting intellectual process which deals with the human experience today.” For Martin, romanticism and ethical sensibility are not in contradiction.
Grande Envie and the campaign are all about desires. This spirit defines the new Miu Miu Upcycled collection: where our greater awareness of clothing’s lifespan is transformed by an intimate creative language of reinterpretation and renewal.
Miu Miu Upcycled by Catherine Martin will make its debut at the New Bond Street store in London on June 7, exclusively available there for two weeks, and from June 21 in selected stores worldwide.
Director: Catherine Martin
Director of Photography: Mandy Walker
Styling: Lotta Volkova
Talent Cast: Callina Liang, Daisy Ridley, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Diana Silvers, Eliot Sumner Special Appearence: Willem Dafoe
Model Cast: Sam Davis, Sanique Dill, Betsy Gaghan, Eli Langer, Yura Romaniuk
Credits for the Miu Miu Upcycled campaign:
Photography: Michella Bredahl
Campaign Art Direction: Edward Quarmby
Styling: Lotta Volkova
Cast: Sam Davis, Sanique Dill, Betsy Gaghan, Eli Langer, Callina Liang, Yura Romaniuk, Daisy Ridley,
Jasmin Savoy Brown, Diana Silvers, Eliot Sumner
