Miu Miu has unveiled a new upcycled collection designed in collaboration with four-time Academy Award-winning designer Catherine Martin.

This collection also marks Martin’s directorial debut with the short film Grande Envie, accompanied by a campaign photographed by Michella Bredahl.

The Miu Miu Upcycled project, launched in 2020, centres on reimagining vintage pieces sourced from specialist stores and markets worldwide. The initiative, grounded in circular fashion, transforms pre-owned and pre-loved clothing into contemporary, sustainable designs.

Martin’s Grande Envie is a ghost love-triangle story set in the late 1920s and early 1930s South of France. It features Callina Liang, Daisy Ridley, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Diana Silvers, Eliot Sumner, and a special appearance by Willem Dafoe. The film is set in an opulent chateau, where a widowed count (Dafoe) encounters three strangers, while the deceased countess (Ridley) haunts her husband through a camera lens. Martin describes the setting as “a dynamic, in-between period, between the world wars, where great clashes and contrasts in style were taking place.”

The collection draws inspiration from this era and from the photography of Jacques Henri Lartigue. Martin’s designs juxtapose elements that might not typically align, such as lingerie with striped t-shirts, denim with eveningwear, and rowing blazers. The garments embody a blend of the pretty and the vulgar, reflecting the contrasts of the 1920s and 30s. Highlights include bias-cut gowns made from t-shirts, denim jeans transformed into wide beach trousers, and vintage scarves reworked into foulard halter tops. Martin cites the photographs of the period’s hedonistic beach culture as a key influence.

Bredahl’s campaign photography captures the mood of the collection with images of models and actors haunting bedrooms, stairwells, and gardens of the chateau in the late afternoon sun. The visuals convey a sense of youth seeking encounters, blurring the lines between past, present, and future.

Martin’s collaboration with Miuccia Prada spans three decades. She describes the collection as a reinterpretation of the past that transforms the meaning of clothing through storytelling.

The collection will debut exclusively at Miu Miu’s New Bond Street store in London on the 7th of June and will be available there for two weeks before a broader release on the 21st of June in selected stores worldwide.

miumiu.com