A success story 30-years in the making: luxury brand Miu Miu

1. Super sales despite sluggish space
2. "Biker boots to ballerina pumps"
3. Touring with the book club
4. Moving East to West

Fall 2021. A miniscule skirt so petit its white-lined pockets peek out below the hem is unveiled on the runway—and almost immediately causes a sensation across the fashion world. It’s been three years since we were introduced to Miu Miu’s mini mini-skirt. It’s since adorned countless fashion magazine covers, featured front and center on many a social media post and been worn by beaucoup supermodels and influencers, such as Gigi Hadid.

The woman behind Miu Miu’s success knows just which levers to pull to get the hype machine rolling. She has done it hundreds of times for the Italian luxury brand Prada, of which she is co-owner and creative director: Miuccia Prada. Since 2020, she has shared management duties with Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons. With Simons shouldering some of the managerial workload, she has had more time to focus on other projects that have fallen by the wayside—such as Miu Miu, a sub-brand founded by Prada in 1993 intended to reach younger audiences. 

Super sales despite sluggish space

When Prada took over, she made a slew of personnel changes—and led the 30-year-old brand out of the doldrums and into the limelight. In the first two quarters of 2024, the company reported sales of around EUR 500m, that’s 93% growth over the previous year and around a quarter of Prada's total sales. On the Lyst Index, an important indicator of the world's hottest fashion labels, Miu Miu took the top spot at the beginning of the year after overtaking its parent company.

All this, mind you, despite a major slump across the luxury market. LVMH, for example, saw revenue grow by just one percent in Q2 this year, compared to 20 percent two years ago. Similar state of affairs for competitor Kering, the holding company with brands such as Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent in its portfolio, saw revenue drop by around 10 percent last quarter; Gucci alone saw revenue plummet by a full 18 percent. 

"Biker boots to ballerina pumps"

In contrast to brands such as Hermes or Brunello Cucinelli, which explicitly focus on the super-rich with their high-priced products and are happy to make their customers wait months for a handbag, products from Gucci, Prada or Miu Miu have more affordable, mainstream appeal. In the Miu Miu online shop, users can find handbags, shoes, tops, sunglasses and perfumes on sale. Miniskirts like the one worn by Gigi Hadid in the fall of 2021 are available for around EUR 1000, as are a pair of black ballet slippers. A light jacket costs around EUR 2000, while a pair of shades with blue lenses can be yours for a mere EUR 430.

A Miu Miu bestseller: the Arcadie bag runs for around EUR 2400. Source: Miu Miu

Although the hype surrounding the mini, miniskirts is over, sales growth shows no signs of slowing. “What we see is a young brand that has only just established a mainstream foothold. Now, it’s starting to monetize its position properly,” says Noah Leidinger, stock market expert. An important driver of this growth is the many new products that Miu Miu regularly launches on the market. Especially those that were quickly said to have iconic status in fashion circles. These include leather goods in particular, such as the handbags from the Arcadie and Wander collections, which run between EUR 890 and 2700 apiece.

Miu Miu is not only targeting young, hip Gen-Z customers—a fact that is on full display on the catwalk, where models of all ages, body types and genders strut. Benedetta Petruzzo told fashion magazine The Business of Fashion (paywall): “We’re everyone from bikers to ballerinas.” The brand has also been very successful at leveraging collaborations. Together with New Balance, for example, Miu Miu released a EUR 890 sneaker, and a leather shoe is due to be released soon, together with luxury shoe manufacturer Church's—another brand in the Prada Group’s portfolio.

Touring with the book club

If you want to further understand Miu Miu's massive success, you need to look east to Japan, China and South Korea, countries where sales have risen by 25% compared to last year. Markets where trendsetters such as K-pop superstar Jang Won Young and actress Liu Haocun have become ambassadors for the brand. 

They have long since been featured in shopping app Weibo in the “Hot Search List,” right alongside their products, e.g. a simple jacket that can fetch EUR 2000. And anyone searching for “Miu Miu Girls” on the Chinese online platform Xiahongshu, which is part social media and part eCom, will land upon hundreds of thousands of posts created by users. The hashtag “Miu Miu Girls Camp,” under which young girls post their outfits, has well over 100 million views.  

Miu Miu knows how to create its own hype around products in regional markets, a phenomenon called “localization.” It’s where brands tailor their marketing to the culture and purchasing behavior of the place where the product meets the customer. With local events such as worldwide tours with the company's own book club, for example, but also a presence on widely used platforms such as Weibo in Asia.  

Moving East to West

“Miu Miu will not be able to maintain its impressive, above-average growth long term,” says Leidinger. While there are no signs that Miu Miu's growth is slowing down at the moment, he does estimate, however, that the company will soon have standard growth rates.

Nevertheless, Miu Miu is poised for something bigger. The company wants to continue to conquer the international market and has now set its sights—and its budgets—on the West: EUR 1b will be available in the next year for expanding store space out west, particularly in the USA.