Italy has a long-standing tradition of designers who collaborated with directors producing some of the most extraordinary costumes in the history of cinema.
Previous posts on this blog have attempted to trace the connections between articular directors/films and fashion and I was happy to see the connection being somehow renewed by Miuccia Prada in her Miu Miu’s Autumn/Winter 2009-10 collection.
The soundtrack for the catwalk show was indeed a mix of dialogues sampled from various films, from Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti to Fassbinder’s.
The long fur stoles that tied around the hips, the fur heeled shoes and the coats and dresses in upholstery fabric echoed somehow the luxurious furs and the breitschwanz jacket Fendi made 
for the imperious matron played by Silvana Mangano in Visconti’s Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Conversation Piece); the visible bras in skin-tones that could be seen from under the garments hinted at the eroticism of Just Jaeckin’s Histoire d’O and Madame Claude, while the cowl neck dresses or the outfits leaving the back open revealing bare skin, made you think about Monica Vitti’s dresses in Antonioni’s L’avventura and L’eclisse.
Miuccia Prada’s cinematic references were mainly used though as metaphors to explore the concept of bourgeoisie in our times.
Everything was very chic and elegant, but perfectly balanced and never excessive: asymmetrical coats and dresses, mid-calf-length sheath dresses formed by a top with a plunging neckline tucked into a long skirt in different colour variations from turquoise and dark ruby to grey and taupe and also available in more elaborate versions covered in beautiful gems, beads, sequins and crystals worn with equally elaborate knee-socks.
Green tiger patterns were subtly used not as references to exotic lands, but as hints at the decadent interior décor of middle class homes.
There were moments during the Miu Miu show when you felt as if you were part of the catwalk scene in Antonioni’s Le amiche (The Girlfriends) with the models silently gliding down the platform, selling the beautiful clothes on their bodies, and the director suggesting that fashion capitalizes on the exhibition of female bodies, voyeurism and fantasy.
Niccolò, the main character of Antonioni’s Identificazione di una donna (Identification of a woman) struggled to find a muse for his film and an ideal woman to live his life with. 
Miuccia Prada found instead her perfect muse in a glamorously chic woman who, differently from Pupe (Romy Schneider) – the heiress in Visconti’s "The Job" (from the film Boccaccio 70) in search of financial independence from her cheating husband – has found her own independence and is ready to live it in full.
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