Miu Miu Upcycled: Catherine Martin resurrects the ghosts of style

What if the future of luxury lay in the past? That’s the promise made by Catherine Martin in her collaboration with Miu Miu Upcycled, the Italian fashion house’s flagship project launched in 2020. The four-time Oscar-winning Australian designer brilliantly blends cinema, couture and ecological awareness, giving rise to a collection – and a short film – that question as much as they sublimate.

Grande Envie: a film, an atmosphere

Directed by Martin herself, “Grande Envie” brings this collection to life like a period dream. In a castle frozen in time, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley and three young women evolve in a haunted in camera setting. Ghosts of love and textile relics merge: the dress becomes a memory, the fabric a reminiscence.

The inspiration? The 1920s-1930s on the Côte d’Azur, captured in a style reminiscent of Jacques Henri Lartigue ‘s photos: blurred, light, suspended moments.

When clothing becomes memory

Nothing here is new. Every piece is sourced, reworked and upcycled. Catherine Martin dares all tensions: lace versus denim, rowing blazer and vintage scarf, evening gown and striped t-shirt. The result? A hybrid elegance, between nostalgia and audacity.

Fashion is no longer a trend: it’s a narrative. Miu Miu Upcycled transforms beloved garments into objects of ultimate luxury, according to Martin. An intimate, almost emotional gesture, the opposite of impersonal new.

Miu Miu, sustainable luxury, thoughtful beauty

Available from June 7 in London, then from June 21 in selected boutiques, this collection is an aesthetic and political manifesto. No naïveté here, but an awareness of the present through the prism of the past.

A rare project, driven by a demanding vision of Romanticism: one that forgets neither history nor matter.

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