For several years now, Miuccia Prada has been supporting women filmakers with her Miu Miu Women’s Tales series. Aiming to showcase directors who critically celebrate and interrogate contemporary femininity, the last four editions have been premiered at the prestigious Giornate degli Autori section of the Venice Film Festival and just a few of the renowned auteurs who’ve contributed to the series are Hiam Abbass, Miranda July and Ava DuVernay.

For the latest edition of the Tales, Japanese documentary maker and feature film director Naomi Kawase (whose previous work includes The Mourning Forest and Still the Water) presents SEED, the charming story of a girl who travels from the the serene nature of Nara into the congested crowds of Tokyo, encountering a series of magical transformations along the way. Sakura Ando – who portrays the protagonist in SEED – said of her character, “she’s more like a fairy. A mysterious creature,” and that the story shifts our perceptions of Asian femininity as “primitive, primal and erotic at the same time.” The movie will premiere today in New York and the entire Women’s Tales archive is available to view online alongside behind the scenes footage and exclusive interviews: long live Miu Miu!

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Yes, Miuccia Prada’s declaration of independence can finally be worn! Now that the fragrance has hit the stores Miu Miu has blessed us with a short clip for the campaign. Fresh and floral, unique but also sophisticated, the campaign’s decision to feature French-English actress Stacy Martin as their front-girl does not come as a surprise to Wonderland, our covergirl for Sept/Oct 2014.

Miuccia’s love for the complicated, elusive, and multifaceted woman comes through with the perfume’s youthful and feminine tones, so representative of the Italian brand’s history. The owner’s love for Stacy probably stems from her reputation to be risky and unconventional when acting – she is the embodiment of fearlessness and thus a personification of Miuccia.

What makes this #MiuMiuParfum so much more special is the dinner Miuccia is hosting tomorrow night to celebrate the Miu Miu Women’s Tales, held at Ca’ Corner della Regina. The meal will feed many talents within the cinema and art industries, including the one and only Stacy, and others such as Hailee Steinfield, Whitney Cummings, Dakota Johnson, and so many more.

The latest short films in the Women’s Tales – “De Djess” and “Les 3 Boutons” premiere tomorrow at the Venice Film Festival so surely all attendees will be wearing Miu Miu by Miu Miu, available nationwide this week.

The fragrance is available to buy now in 30, 50, and 100ml Eau de Parfum.

Words: Marianna Mukhametzyanova

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“The dress is fished from the ocean, fresh as a newborn baby.”

Why won’t you let your sweater go? It’s falling apart, but it’s part of you! It has witnessed your failures, guided your conquests and comforted you through cyber-bullying. You love it like a friend; even if it’s from GAP. Hold onto clothes you’ve truly loved and give away those that were flings. Some clothes are lost, at parties and Laundromats, but only because they chose to be. Socks are the most likely to flee. Don’t take it personally, you just weren’t right for them. But, where did they go?

In a private club on the last eve of New York Fashion Week, Miu Miu premiered “De Djess.” Number Nine in their Women’s Tales series, the film’s screening party was indulgent and spooky; like a fairy tale by Alice Rohrwacher.

Alice is the latest director called to create a Women’s Tales short. Her sister, Alba Rohrwacher, plays a lead role in it. “We fight all the time, but that makes it easier to communicate. We can say anything.” Anything, including a fake language which Alice invented for the script. “I don’t understand many other languages. I travel a lot and I often find myself in situations where I don’t speak the language around me. It was easy for this reason to invent a new language. I wanted to represent the point of view of the dress, confused by her surroundings.”

The Miu Miu dress is the protagonist—I mean, princess—of this tale. “I wanted to simply recall a little love story. A dress comes into the world, falls in love with a beautiful woman who doesn’t want her, wants to go into a wardrobe where everyone refuses her, then finally finds true love.” It’s good to know that someone else realises the people who often have the most beautiful clothes don’t deserve or appreciate them! Celebrity culture and Italian drama queens are main themes in this film. Alice mixes satirical humour with her delicate, feminine touch. I don’t mean ‘feminine’ as in, ‘girly.’ I mean, Alice explores the deep subtleties within women that most filmmakers neglect. “I don’t feel obligated to address feminine issues as a female director. I feel responsible to do so as a human being.”

The princess dress and the rest of Miu Miu’s Spring 2015 collection serve as key roles in the film. They’re alive because they live with us. Fashion has a profound affect on us, especially women. Dressing allows us to express and empower ourselves but we shouldn’t forget that it has just the power to hold us back. “Fashion and femininity need a balance. The screw shouldn’t be too tight or too loose.” Alice loves that Prada and Miu Miu have a strong image that allow both sophistication and naivety. “Miuccia Prada seems to have retained adolescence. Her collections say: I’m strong and wise but I can joke and appreciate youth.”

Despite the aid of free champagne, Alice admits that screenings still make her nervous. When she was starting out, certain career steps seemed too daunting to handle. “When I was pregnant with my daughter, I thought, it’s impossible. Something so big can’t come out of such a small hole. The math doesn’t make sense. At that moment you panic and you want to go back in time, to keep it from happening. In this industry, I’ve entered rooms thinking, “what have I done?” and wanted to turn around. But, I’m a daughter. And I have a daughter. And the things we’re doing, someone has done before. And it’s important to remember that.”

As most fairy tales, “De Djess” has a happy ending. The paparazzi, waiting anxiously in a hotel lobby for the drama queen in her dress, fail to photograph the true love who ends up wearing it.

“There are some things you can’t capture.”

You can’t capture everything on film, but this one comes close.

Words: Tea Hacic-Vlahovic.

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Few fashion brands have as much to say about contemporary womanhood as Miu Miu. Since it was launched by Miuccia Prada in 1993, its seasonal collections have consistently and ingeniously trod the line between girlishness and sophistication, babe-dom and intellectualism, with surprising and thought-provoking results. Though the brand has always sought to expand our conception of femininity in its collections and campaigns, the conversation has become even more animated in the past two years with the launch of Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales – a series of films about women, featuring Miu Miu clothing and masterminded by some of the best female directors in the industry.

Here, Ava DuVernay, the award-winning director of 2012 Sundance hit Middle of Nowhere and the fifth creative to be set loose on the project, explains how her short The Door, featuring the sultry Miu Miu spring 2013 collection, aims to show women in a light not often seen in mainstream cinema:

“The Door is really about friendship and sisterhood. It’s about a woman in turmoil and three different friends who come to her and give her a gift to draw her our of her hard time. Something you don’t see enough in cinema is sisterhood and the friendships that women share, which are very specific and nourishing.

Moves affect the way we see ourselves and the way we’re seen by others, so I think examples of women being together and not being catty or competitive are important – when women get together there is always a little drama, but it doesn’t have to be negative.

‘Feminine and strong’ are words that shouldn’t be antithetical to each other. You can be womanly and have strength and boldness; I’ve always enjoyed that about Miu Miu. Its classic lines have an edge that is feminine yet strong. The label reached out to me after I won the Sundance award for Best Director and invited me to make a film with them: no men allowed, very collaborative and minimal guidelines. We shot everywhere from Malibu to inner-city Inglewood over two days and the Miu Miu clan were all in, rolling up their shirt sleeves and styling the shoot.

Miu Miu was completely open to any women I wanted to cast and I was very clear that I wanted to use a beautiful array of African-American women. If a black woman film director doesn’t include black actresses, then who will? I just love these amazing actresses and they all happen to be black. We’ve got this myth that African-American imagery doesn’t translate well outside the States, and that is something I am decidedly against. I know that with opportunities like this, we can make sure this myth dissolves.”

Words: Zing Tsjeng

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