MILAN — It’s secure to say that Miu Miu is sizzling hot in the meanwhile, but chief executive officer Benedetta Petruzzo underscores that the brand’s current success, hinging on Miuccia Prada’s creativity, is the results of seeds planted way back and far team work.

This effort was addressed by newly installed Prada Group CEO Andrea Guerra as he commented on the first-quarter results of the corporate earlier this month, remarking on the “great job” done at Miu Miu over the past 12 to 36 months, because the brand is “well-received, visible and [enjoying] a much larger retail success.”

Compared with the identical period in 2022, retail sales of the Miu Miu brand accelerated in the primary three months of 2023, rising 42 percent to 129 million euros.

In the newest quarter of the Lyst Index’s hottest brand list, Miu Miu climbed to second for the period between January to March, which is the brand’s highest rating because the list began. Prada nabbed the primary spot.

Among the many contributing aspects to this growth, the rise in popularity of Miu Miu will be largely attributed to the high demand for the Pocket bag, a second collaboration with Recent Balance and a trend-setting Paris Fashion Week show featuring Emma Corrin, Zaya Wade, Mia Goth and Ethel Cain on the catwalk.

Ready-to-wear and shoes have all the time been strong categories for Miu Miu, growing across the board in all geographies, Petruzzo said in an exclusive interview, and leather goods are actually increasingly becoming “a pillar” also through the launch of the brand new Pocket bag.

Petruzzo said “there’s a recent impulse” on this segment with a recent campaign celebrating its signature matelassé series. The matelassé is a special craftsmanship where panels are doubled with wadding and elastic cloth after which quilted.

Miu Miu is celebrating the matelassé in two styles, the Wander, and the newly debuted Arcadie — in a campaign for spring fronted by Gigi Hadid and photographed by Steven Meisel, bowing on Thursday.

First launched throughout the fall 2006 show, the matelassé has been revisited by way of size and design throughout the years and is by now so central to the brand’s handwriting that it barely needs a logo to be recognized, the manager contended.

“The Wander already made an announcement, because the matelassé craft has turn into iconic for us, and it expresses brand continuity,” she continued. Drawing from ancient mythology, the name Arcadie evokes an idealized and idyllic natural location, observed Petruzzo.

For the campaign, Meisel was inspired by Margaret Keane, paying tribute to the late American artist as she reflects Miu Miu’s attitude, independence and character, noted the CEO. Keane was known for her distinctive paintings of melancholic women, children and animals, sometimes called “big-eyed waifs.”

Her husband Walter Keane took credit for her work for years, before losing a legal battle to his wife. The Keanes’ story was adapted by director Tim Burton in his “Big Eyes” film in 2014. There are references to Keane in Meisel’s photos by way of colours and the set, in addition to the general mood and Hadid’s stylized poses.

“Miuccia Prada is some of the inspiring and iconic women on the planet — because she explores all of her loves and interests to their fullest potential,” Hadid said. “It’s an honor to see her work, work together with her and to experience someone full of information and powerful yet still down-to-earth and type. She does a lot to create spaces to rejoice others. I believe of the Miu Miu woman as someone who has similar qualities to Miuccia…playful but calm, classic but cool, in-charge but grounded.”

Asked about Hadid, Petruzzo acknowledged that “we’re eager about her attitude through the lenses of Meisel” and the way “immediate and intimate, in addition to evocative” the pictures are.

While a longtime brand, “with a transparent identity and positioning, we invested in making [Miu Miu] increasingly more visible and with an all the time growing community,” Petruzzo said.

The identity reflects that community, “distinctive, a bit irreverent, radical, disruptive and authentic, we speak of ladies’s empowerment to free and independent minds, women who refuse to be labeled, and that is visible also through the Miu Miu Women’s Tales or the collaboration with artists, continued also within the last fashion shows. The brand is contemporary and immediate, it lives in the present times.”

Starting with spring 2022, Miu Miu has been collaborating with artists and performers on show content, adding a layer of culture to fashion, according to Miuccia Prada’s sensibility. For instance, in March the designer unveiled her latest tie-up for her Miu Miu show on the Palais d’Iéna in Paris. She linked with South Korean choreographer and performance artist Geumhyung Jeong, who is thought for her manipulation of mechanical objects and her edgy, sensual staging.

Prada previously worked with artists Meriem Bennani on the Miu Miu spring 2022 show and with Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg on the autumn 2022 show. For Miu Miu‘s spring 2023 show, the designer collaborated with Chinese artist Shuang Li, who conceived a video and set installation.

Last yr, Miu Miu sales were up 20 percent to 432 million euros, recording a pointy acceleration within the second half.

The sales growth is predicated on full price at retail and e-commerce, a key channel for the Gen Y and Z customers of Miu Miu.

Miu Miu’s miniskirts and ballerinas have also sparked trends, Petruzzo observed, but she noted that “we have now to all the time discover a balance with fresh recent ideas to be relevant season after season, while also strengthening the icons.”

Petruzzo was “optimistic in regards to the future” and the strategies for the brand.

While “very satisfied” with the performance in Europe and Asia in the primary quarter, where the corporate registered “a really strong rebound,” the manager believes there’s growth potential within the U.S., where “we’re still small, but Americans are searching for us.”

“We’ve got optimized the network and I’m confident that is the precise strategy for the longer term. I don’t expect drastic strategic changes. We’re investing in brand retail excellence, and specializing in the prevailing network,” Petruzzo said.

Asked in regards to the recent Prada Group governance, which saw the arrival of Guerra as Prada Group CEO in January and Patrizio Bertelli becoming chairman and executive director of the group, Petruzzo said that “throughout the recent organizational structure, [Guerra] is one other fundamental support in achieving our ambitions as a brand and in our growth path.”