Last week, I was privileged enough to attend the Miu Miu and Chuches’ RTO Press Days with Ernest, aka Yang for a preview of their 2011 RTO Collection. Our first stop was the Miu Miu store to see to see a collection, which’s’ inspiration designer Miuccia Prada described as coming from the modern day affinity of fame.
The collection mostly brought together a combination of delicate silks and heavy leathers, with an abundance of appliqué’s and cut-out detailing, as well as the odd animal print bag thrown in for good measure. There were some obvious influence from the hedonistic 60s present within the detailing on the leather goods and jackets, but the metallic colours teamed with floral and cosmic appliqué just didn’t seem to have any resonance with the whole ‘Fame’ theme but maybe that’s just because I “just didn’t get it”.
If I’m being honest, I wasn’t really a fan of the majority of the leather goods in the collection, and the accessories, especially the later which I felt were too similar to ones from the previous seasons, without adding anything dramatically new. I was however in awe of the silk, swan-print dress and couldn’t help but love the green sweetheart print prom style dress. All in all I appreciate the whimsicalness of the overall collection, it being Miu Miu I wouldn’t have expected to see anything less, but it just wasn’t as enjoyable or exciting as what they’ve produced in the last few seasons. That being said, I could easily see the everything bar the leather jackets on the very same young starlets Miuccia took inspiration from.
Our next stop was off to Churches ‘s press day. I have to admit I wasn’t too familiar with the brand before hand, but it was actually quite a fun experience. Churches’ are a British footwear brand, known for their production of high-quality traditional English shoes such as brogues, loafers and Oxford’s, and have recently expanded into leather goods and women’s wear. The new collection seemed to be very much in keeping with their previous releases’ this time with an addition of women’s brogues including a rather exciting studded white pair.
