How the Miu Miu Girl has the internet in a chokehold

Prada’s prickly little sister has a lesson on branding. And we all best listen.

It all started with a miniskirt.

A miniskirt so mini and so perfect in all its dimensions, it had us internet girls on our KNEES. Begging. PLEADING. Longing for the skirt of our dreams.

Then came the glasses. Omg, the glasses. Little elliptical specs, with the Miu Miu branding on the bottom corner of the lens.

Oh, to be a Miu Miu Girl.

Messy but chic, geeky but sexy. It’s wearing an insanely expensive Cloquet miniskirt, with wet hair, a cigarette and an overstuffed handbag.

Every season, every look, for the last three decades has been crafting this archetype.

A character imagined from Mrs. Prada’s affinity for paradoxes. On the runway and in ads she’s been young but old, sexy, but never overtly, kittenish but forbidding, pragmatic in parts but a fantasy as a whole.

However, she has never resonated quite like she has this year. And fashion bloggers all over are hot to deploy the 'Miu Miu Girl' phrase showing how the brand has connected with audiences in a way few other brands have.

Which has been often, because Miu Miu reported stellar growth for the first quarter of this year, up an astonishing 93% year-on-year. And its rise hasn’t stopped there.

With impeccable timing, the internet’s obsession with girlhood and Miu Miu seem to have collided like two, incredibly well-dressed billiard balls. And this has skyrocketed the brand's popularity to new levels of cultural clout.

But it’s not mere fate behind Miu Miu’s recent success. It’s years of strategic marketing that have come to fruition.

So, what, pray tell, is in Miu Miu’s secret sauce?

Attitude, not age.

The brand began as a youthful sibling to a more sophisticated and grown-up Prada. But now, Miu Miu is turning that positioning on its head, opting for a strategy that speaks to a broader audience. The offering has become ageless.

'The point is you can choose what you wear,' Miuccia Prada said after the Miu Miu A/W 2024 show. 'I have to decide every morning if I am going to dress as I was as a 15-year-old girl or the lady I am today.'

It’s about embodying a youthful energy. An energy that’s linked not to age, but attitude.

The items are also increasingly becoming more genderless, aiming to 'speak to a universe of people.'

It’s essentially psychographics over demographics. And this strategy is expanding Miu Miu's customer base as far as the eye can see.

Ambiguity.

The archetype crafted to be the Miu Miu Girl is notoriously hard to define because she contradicts herself.

Well, so do most people, according to Mrs. Prada’s thinking. Ambiguity is a result of having a 'rich on the inside' personality, according to the 75-year-old designer.

'There is a strength, and a tenderness,' she wrote to the NYT. 'For instance, you can want to be beautiful and gentle but also intelligent, political.'

'She isn’t unknowable, because she is present in all of us.'

Before she was a designer, Mrs. Prada was a mime, a communist, and a student protester. She holds a doctorate in political science. If anybody knows about ambiguity, it’s her.

This not only gives the brand a wider appeal, but it also gives its consumers permission to be all that they want to be. There’s a sense of freedom that comes along with the essence of the brand that allows its customers to embody whatever aspects of it they choose.

In a world where we’re increasingly pigeon-holed into 'aesthetic' boxes, the Miu Miu girl is brave enough to encompass all that she is.

Product.

Miu Miu claimed Lyst’s renowned title of 'the hottest brand in the world.' This was partly because of two viral products the brand has launched over the last few years. The first one was, of course, the honourable SS22 microskirt.

A skirt that started, in part, as an anachronistic joke in October 2021. Commenting on the y2k comeback, Miuccia (Mrs.) Prada jested, what if your plain khaki skirt sat right down at your hip bones, exposing your midriff like it’s 2001, with a hem falling slightly below your genitals?

Turns out, this was a joke shaped like a dollar sign.

It exploded through the internet, creating a frenzy and resonating deeply with the brand's audience.

'I was at the show and vividly remember seeing that look. It felt so fun and unapologetic in a world where women’s bodies are often policed,' says Jeanie Annan Lewin, a fashion stylist and Creative Director of Katie Grand’s Perfect magazine.

But this spanned far beyond any show.

According to global shopping platform Lyst, the Miu Miu set has sparked a three-year high search for mini-skirts. The site sees 900 searches per day for that Miu Miu skirt. And Paloma Elesser’s i-D cover sparked a 127% increase in shoppers browsing Miu Miu on the Lyst app.

That’s a lot of impact for a little skirt.

Miu Miu has really embodied the trope of the cooler, trendier, more expressive little sister.

And as a big sister, I think Prada should be proud. The paradoxical nature of the two brands gives Miu Miu even more of an edge in a seemingly impenetrable market.

Crafting the Miu Miu Girl archetype has done more for the brand in the last two years than the majority of their marketing efforts over the last three decades. This proves that building something truly valuable takes time, patience, and finesse.

So, what can our brands learn from Miu Miu?

Put psychographics over demographics. Attitude is everything. When looking at your audience, you need to understand their current cultural mood. This will help your brand promote an attitude or lifestyle that resonates across age and gender boundaries. And this will cultivate a timeless brand presence.

Embrace ambiguity. Encourage exploration of self and the multiple facets within. Pigeonholing your audience will pigeonhole your brand, limiting your potential reach.

Tap into virality. Obviously, we all love a good viral moment. Creating products and campaigns that resonate with cultural trends can fuel widespread brand awareness and drive demand. Go big or go home.

Oh, by the way, my birthday is in a months’ time. If anyone was wondering what to get me, I wear a size 10 skirt and I prefer my glasses in black. TY xx

-Sophie, Writer