Mumu for years was thought of Simply as just the Prada almost diffusion line but recently it's turned yet another Corner distancing themselves from their colossal sister so how has one woman managed to develop two distinct luxury labels loved by millions Mumu was established in 1992 by none other than mucha Prada the aonomus head of the Prada brand with the name Mumu being her family nickname their debut collection spring summer 93 was a collection of cowgirl themed clothes of suede fringing and cotton dresses the brand was meant as an unabashed creative outlet for Mrs Prada that
was supposedly less concerned with Trends or profits and more inspired personally as the woman she wants to be that was at least in concept because Mrs Prada and her team are heavyweights in the retail business for a reason and for Mumu they had a vision of youthful looks and a more Sprite tone to appeal to the youth Market who at the time Prada wasn't directly targeting but despite being able to open their first store a year later in 1993 just before the release of the Autumn winter 994 collection the brand didn't see the projected explosive
success right off the bat instead they found themselves struggling to differentiate themselves From Prada meaning they instead focused on a softer roll out for the brand which I suppose should have been preempted it's hard to change an artist's handwriting to to a differentiating amount especially with a new business that has yet to develop its own house codes though this is a tad ironic because in this very collection we see now obvious brand identifiers like this collar the pleated short skirt and repetitive use of rivets or poppers but they hadn't been secured as identifiers just yet
being that this was their first usage so to help with this problem of Separation From Prada from 1994 the brand was moved to America for three seasons where it showed to Mid critical success then once in London Autumn winter 97 before moving back to Milan for a spell starting in spring summer 98 Mumu at this time wasn't really commented on critically in large quantities at least that I could find but from this Vogue interview from her Autumn winter 97 show we can see that because of the provenance that comes from being associated with Mrs Prada
the company was still commercially viable in Europe and America though not yet in Asia realistically the product was good and commercial with a full product range of garments shoes bags Etc which were able to keep them profitable they just didn't have more desirability over other luxury offerings to allow for higher margins so because of this profitability in their wide product range Mumu managed to successfully launch a men's wear line in spring summer 99 to diversify their portfolio this critically was actually very welled received and so Men's Wear began on their own catwalk in Milan Fashion
Week just one season later in Autumn winter 99 it was presented as a play conducted by professional actors in lie of models meaning that Mumu now had two commercially successful lines but not necessarily A distinct look to differentiate themselves From Prada leaving many to feel like it was a luxury diffusion or subsidiary line and it was priced as such with prices demanding about 40 to 50% less than and Prada this was all until the Prada group the parent company to both Prada and Mumu decided to back Mumu more fully likely because by this point the
brand has had time to incubate well and had naturally grown a loyal customer base with a few brand identifiers over the years like these pieces which include color detail collar the 60s as inspiration stripes in general baby pinks and mini skirts which contribute to a more recognizably Mew look that had potential to recuperate some of the money lost from the failings at gel sander which was another brand owned by the Prada company that was not doing well in my opinion despite the low initial sales I think this change to Mumu began in Autumn winter O2
which is really the first collection that is still currently recognizable as meum muu all of these years later with elements we've seen before now cohesively presented like this hooded silhouette color blocking 60s influence and more leggy looks it's in my opinion that this is where Mumu really starts to differentiate itself from Prada although I am aware others may feel differently and you could very easily argue earlier collections are recognizably muum too if you wanted by 2005 the company set up headquarters in Milan before in 2006 they committed Mumu to the Paris Fashion Week schedule Away
From Prada who was showing in Milan to attempt to differentiate in the same way that they had tried before however this time it was actually successful the women's wear was growing in strength collection by collection from here differentiated From Prada however the Men's Wear line continued to get comparisons not only to Prada menswar but also to Mani who had a very similar look to Mrs Prada but were more commercially successful in their menswear offering Mumu menswear has an incredible cult following today but it was before its time so unfortunately it was closed in 2008 with
their last collection being spring summer08 so the company could focus on its now profitable women's wear line that had just begun something very interesting in the women's wear spring summer 08 show they showed their first bag with manipulated leather specifically this clutch bag with gathered leather this bag would go on to be mumu's inspiration or predecessor for an absolute classic the mat technique which showed alongside other leather manipulation in the spring summer 09 collection the m has become a staple for Mumu and it's easily their most recognizable identifier however it wasn't actually successful at first
I couldn't find any reviews of the bag from that time period at all which led me to think that it wasn't a bestseller right off the bat this backed up by the fact that we don't actually see the bag come back again until Autumn winter 11 over 2 years later Autumn winter 11 in itself was a clearly welld designed to show off their access series but there's always an element of luck in a creative field luck that very much worked in the favor of me me for this collection not for the bags though but for
the sunglasses these sunglasses were really mumu's first viral product at least viral to this extent they were all over the fashion magazines at the time available in a wide range of colors accessible in significantly more retail locations as they were stocked by Sunglass Hut and I remember so desper really wanting them they were so commercially successful in fact that they're still available to buy today around 12 to 13 years later just of course in different colorways actually it's more or less these two products the Handbags and the sunglasses that became the cash cows of Mumu
it's no secret that leather goods are the make or break of a big luxury brand with sunglasses being a close second in this case made by luxotica who in 2011 saw Mumu as one of their best selling brands at 4.2% of sales which according to their own annual report was worth 261 million EUR which in 2011 was $363 Million us literally a third of a billion dollars in sunglasses alone so Mumu was extremely financially Successful by this point and it does continue as such but it still hasn't hit the wider Zeitgeist two where it is
today honestly I would argue that aside from a few oneoff hit products here and there it wasn't until spring summer 22 that they really had a whole collection hit out of the park again personally I find it so interesting to mirror the Prada and Mumu Brands until this point because Mrs Prada didn't actually start the Prada brand it was handed down to her through her family having been started by her grandfather Mario Prada and her grand Uncle Martino Prada whereas the mumu brand is hers a brand she began herself as her vision for who she
wanted to be as a person and though I do want to jump to spring summer 22 because it is a major turning point for the brand that's not to say that they don't have great and important collections between spring summer 12 to Autumn winter 21 in particular spring summer 14 where we saw a development of the 60s aesthetic this time mixed with scaled up children's wear as women's wear the blue hues and pseudo western style jackets becoming instant Classics the Autumn winter 19 collection for being their first fur free collection and perhaps the most influential
collection being the Autumn winter 21 collection one could argue that really any and every company takes a while to find its feet but what's interesting is that Mumu never really failed it was always commercially viable and I don't think it saw a year of losses since it's Inception in fact if it wasn't for the ridiculously big rise of Prada in the late '90s Mumu would be extremely respectable as a company throughout all of the '90s 2000s and 2010s Mrs Prada's situation worked as a double-edged sword because it was obviously Mrs Prada's Fame family money and
connections that made the mumu brand in the first place but it was the shadow of Prada that kept it very much as an Insider secret for so many years however it is this Autumn winter 21 collection that would really change that it's not like the genius of this collection came from nowhere obviously Mrs prder is a wellestablished designer so in almost every collection all of the house codes are present and the color palette is consistent as well as everything relating to everything preceding it but that being said it seems that in this collection in particular
the house would perfect the identity of Mumu that they have been carving for so many years with the late 60s inspired looks balaclava hoods and light blue tones this collection was absolute perfection and I think the company knew that it would be a turning point too considering they took to the slopes to show off the pieces in this very grandiose way making the most of a bad Corona situation The Collection though heavily praised in the fashion sphere saw little attention outside of it say for some of the more unorthodox looks like this one which was
certainly questioned by online critics but I would not consider the company enough of a hit just yet to Warrant the respect that we know that the brand gets now at least not until the spring summer 22 collection which was a Blow Away hit right from the moment it showed and it is very obvious as to why a staple of Mrs Prada over both the mumu and Prada brands are skirts specifically with pleated skirts being very much a Mumu staple as well as Blazers or generally Italian style tailoring being very identifiable for Mrs Prada's design style
but in this show she subverted both of these ideas completely by topping them in half Mrs PR is really not known for deconstruction raw hemming or unfinished looks at all so for her to show exactly that was a statement in itself bound to get people talking it was taken by many critics as a response to people returning back into work having forsaken now buying gone dress codes yet being forced to redone themselves in them have now cut them up in an act of rebellion like we did back in school if you were also forced to
wear a school uniform The Collection was clever timely and looked great meaning it resonated both on the aesthetic and emotional levels with viewers Mrs prder and Company being extremely Savvy business people cottoned onto this very quickly and went to work with getting Mumu in editorials and seen on celebrities the world over specifically they sent out this mini skirt to every magazine every celebrity they could to get the muu name out there once more so much so that it created a huge deconstructive mini skirt Trend that is still very popular on Tik Tok today the collection
was marvelous and the marketing was strategically respectable too I think really the only misstep in the campaign was not signing a western actress along with imuna as the brand ambassador in Korea she's known now more for her acting than her working Girls Generation but I wouldn't say she was known for being particularly unique in her fashion choices at all this actually works in the Asian market where simple well-made garments rung Queen but for the Western audience it doesn't quite translate as well and doesn't relate as well to how the audience perceives the muu brand this
pretty much comes down to how the brand is marketed differently between the East and the West in Asia Mumu is accepted more with this aesthetic where in the west it's more with this kind of a look there's clearly a little discrepancy between these looks but most brands are marketed very differently in the East versus the West because these consumers just consume very differently and realistically for meu the market is much bigger in Asia where in Soul alone there are 10 muu stores which outnumber their stores in London New York and Paris combined but still having
just Yuna as a brand ambassador doesn't holistically work for both markets that being said interest in the brand was growing exponentially at this time so when the Autumn 22 collection showed everyone had high hopes for another big hit product unfortunately that didn't really happen for the women's wear we didn't get that one viral product to send the media into a frenzy at least not right off the bat but what we did get was the return of men's wear you may remember how I mentioned Men's Wear was halted in 2008 and had grown a cult following
since well now that Mumu had seen an immense growth in its notoriety it could not have been better timing to bring back the iconic Men's Wear offering the men's were of Auto winter 22 was significantly more androgynous than his forefather which pandas to the receptive men of the new generation exceptionally well the suiting is especially nice as is the pleated shorts as a take on the wellestablished pleated Mumu skirt and I thought it was particularly smart to have both men and women wear several of the Men's Wear looks giving a less gender dictation of their
offering but the virality of this collection didn't end there because more recently as this collection has come into stores we've seen a huge surge of Interest into the ballet flats that were shown on the catwalk walk but didn't hit a wider interest until they were made available in stores with various iterations specifically on Tik Tok Mumu got their serious viral moment going again and really these days companies and Brands need viral products like this to keep momentum for the brand going enough for it to be a bankable luxury that people will want to buy into
needless to say all the attention from the media at the time for the men's Weare That Then followed through into the more media attention for the ballet flats meant that this collection has become a stand out from the brand as a whole meaning I and many others were very much excited to see some more men's wear and some more great design at the Paris show that showed recently for spring summer 23 this collection was once again iconic bringing back the new house codes of short skirts and shorts in the pleated style lots of mid drifts
and a very androgynous look I'm so happy to see Men's Wear being brought back to Mumu but mostly I'm just so happy that Mrs Prada's own brand is finally seeing its roses on a much wider level the only shame of it being that there wasn't really a viral product from the catwalk itself then maybe it will be when it comes into stores I guess for that we're going to have to wait and see this collection as with the two that preceded it have begun a new era for the brand that really achieves the youth that
the brand has strived to produce since 1993 I'm so excited to see where it goes from here and if rap does end up taking over from Mrs Prada at the Prada Mainline brand I really hope that she stays on to design the m your line so that it can grow even further thank you for watching subscribe and hit the notification Bell for more videos like this one or check out my two previous videos on your right for the full playlist of videos on your left
