The Technique Behind Miu Miu’s Explosive Development

MILAN — To know the enterprise momentum and aspirations of Prada‘s Miu Miu label, there’s no higher place to begin than the runway present it staged on the final day of Paris Trend Week.

Designer Miuccia Prada despatched out a lineup of wearable appears to be like, referencing life’s many phases, from girlhood to maturity, on a solid that included Gigi Hadid, 28, and Kristin Scott Thomas, 63.

Initially conceived as a youthful sibling to grown-up Prada, Miu Miu, which final week reported retail gross sales that have been up 58 p.c in 2023, has in recent times turned its little sister positioning on its head, choosing a brand new technique that speaks to a broader church of consumers.

“The purpose is you may select what you put on,” Miuccia Prada stated after the present. “I’ve to determine each morning if I’m going to decorate as I used to be as a 15-year-old lady or the woman I’m at the moment.”

The providing has turn out to be not solely ageless, however more and more genderless, too. As we speak’s Miu Miu goals to “communicate to a universe of individuals,” stated the model’s chief government Benedetta Petruzzo, herself a thirty-something, in Milan the day after Prada Group launched its newest set of outcomes.

“The opening up of the casting of the runway present says lots,” Petruzzo added. “It says: I do know the principles and I’ll have enjoyable subverting them. There’s a joie de vivre about it. It’s a youthful vitality linked, to not age, however to perspective.”

In different phrases, it’s extra about psychographics than demographics. And whereas Miu Miu’s model remains to be concerning the youthful, freer, much less conceptual aspect of Mrs Prada, the garments and styling have modified dramatically in recent times, partly as a result of arrival of super-stylist Lotta Volkova.

It was throughout the pandemic lockdowns that the revamp began in earnest, in keeping with executives. And final week’s outcomes confirmed that the mission is gaining tempo: retail gross sales accelerated by 82 p.c within the fourth quarter with sturdy momentum in China and the remainder of Asia. EBIT margin improved to 22.5 p.c of revenues.

Development, stated Petruzzo, is “transversal; it’s occurring throughout merchandise and geographies.” Miu Miu now accounts for 15 p.c of gross sales of Prada Group in contrast with 12 p.c in 2022.

“Miu Miu has all the time had a robust potential. It’s essentially the most free expression of Signora Prada,” Petruzzo added. “The technique from right here is obvious: we hold going on this course.”

Learn how to sustain the tempo in a 12 months when the steam has come off luxurious’s post-pandemic growth is the problem. However Petruzzo is satisfied Miu Miu is simply in the beginning of its development spurt.

There may be room to develop, largely, as a result of the model is stretching its buyer base. Miu Miu’s historic positioning because the sister model of Prada means its core clients skew youthful. Some two-thirds are millennial and Gen Z. However millennials are getting older, so Miu Miu has made some extent of talking to these with a “youthful perspective” and meaning greater than getting old millennials.

That’s mirrored within the retooled product providing. Miu Miu’s viral micro-miniskirt is among the model’s top-sellers. However so, too, is a cashmere cardigan. Miu Miu is constructing its provide on each development items and wearable riffs on preppy daywear. “We’re biker boots to ballerinas,” stated Petruzzo.

The model can also be constructing out key product classes, crucially in all-important leather-based items with the launch of its Arcadie luggage, and through collaborations like Church’s X Miu Miu brogues and a tie-up with New Stability.

One other key a part of the technique is “about beginning conversations,” stated Petruzzo. In different phrases: producing earned media mentions to telegraph the model to an even bigger potential viewers.

Miu Miu’s micro-mini for Spring/Summer season 2022 was a media sensation, its slashed hem a howl of liberation after the darkish days of Covid-19 lockdowns. It landed on scores of celebrities and journal covers, and helped drive demand for mini skirts to a three-year excessive, in keeping with Lyst.

Critically, you didn’t really need to purchase Miu Miu’s skirt to take part within the dialog — you might slash your individual skirt at residence and nonetheless really feel a part of the second. It’s all a part of a method to create extra noise than the model’s current advertising budgets would in any other case permit.

Making a strong basis for development is essential not only for Miu Miu, but additionally for Prada Group, which wants the larger stability of a multi-pillared enterprise in an more and more ferocious aggressive surroundings dominated by the monetary firepower of French luxurious colossus LVMH. Gross sales at Prada Group, which additionally contains Prada, Church’s, Automotive Shoe and patisserie chain Marchesi 1824, rose 17 p.c in 2023 to €4.7 billion. By comparability, LVMH’s style and leather-based items division generated gross sales of €42.1 billion final 12 months.

Much less eye-catching than the micro-miniskirt but additionally essential to Miu Miu’s success has been a push to strengthen the operational aspect of the group. Prada co-founder Patrizio Bertelli, throughout the firm’s newest earnings name, described Miu Miu’s latest success as the results of “strategic decisions remodeled the previous couple of years in product communication, distribution and human assets.”

Petruzzo’s arrival as chief government for Miu Miu, the primary time the model has had a devoted government, is emblematic of that change. A former Bain administration advisor who labored at Kering, most just lately as its US government vice chairman of eyewear, she joined Prada in 2020. The appointment was a part of the broader managerialisation of Prada Group that’s taken place since 2017 when Lorenzo Bertelli, son of Mrs Prada and Mr Bertelli, joined the household firm to steer advertising and communications.

The group’s government crew additionally contains Paolo Zannoni, a former Fiat and Goldman Sachs government who serves as government vice chairman. Andrea Guerra, one other veteran government who led eyewear big Luxottica for a decade and was most just lately a senior supervisor at LVMH, grew to become CEO of Prada Group in 2023.

Petruzzo defines her crew at the moment as being “not essentially larger, however there may be extra definition,” each by way of roles and in its separation from the Prada model. After a number of years of exits from Prada, it’s a telling break from the previous that Petruzzo describes Miu Miu’s workers as “strong and motivated.” “We’re feeling empowered to take this path of sturdy development,” she stated.

It’s serving to momentum, too, that tourism is lastly coming again to Europe. Chinese language and Individuals are returning to the area, in keeping with Prada executives. On a go to this previous Saturday, Miu Miu and Prada’s flagship shops in Milan have been thronging with American and Chinese language consumers, in addition to Italians and Russians.

Petruzzo factors out Miu Miu has diminished its community of shops over the previous couple of years which makes its like-for-like development much more notable. Natural development is the purpose for the approaching years, too, even when “we could have extra sq. metres of retailer in 2025-2026.” Bertelli has stated funding in actual property price €1 billion is a enterprise precedence, particularly within the US.

There may be extra model extension to return with the launch of fragrances in 2025. Miu Miu inked a multiyear take care of L’Oréal’s luxurious magnificence division this 12 months and Petruzzo doesn’t rule out additional enlargement into magnificence, corresponding to cosmetics, or different areas corresponding to interiors — however not but. “There may be actually the potential to open different areas, however not in the meanwhile,” she stated.

One factor that’s not altering for Miu Miu is its Paris runway residence. Mrs Prada moved the model’s present to the French capital in 2006, and since 2011 it has offered its new collections within the Palais d’Iéna. “Though it’s a really Milanese model, it’s also a solution to separate the imaginative and prescient of Miu Miu from Prada,” stated Petruzzo. “Miu Miu can also be born from a world spirit.” It’s one other signal of Miu Miu’s intentions to beat a world viewers.