Is it Women Washing? Miu Miu Celebrates Female Workers

The Paris Fashion Week SS26 was full of surprises. One of them came from Miu Miu, whose runway was filled with star models dressed in aprons. Really? The reactions were split; some applauding the artistic statement, others waving a red flag and accusing the brand of women washing. But is that fair? We decided to dig a little deeper, to understand what’s behind the symbolism — and whether the Miu Miu SS26 collection genuinely celebrates women at work or simply dresses up feminism for the runway.

Miu Miu SS26 — A Celebration of Work

Miuccia Prada was bold enough to bring the concept of “work” onto a luxury runway. For some, this instantly triggers the classic question: how can a house like Miu Miu, part of the Prada Group empire, talk about labour while selling €1,000 aprons? But work, as Miuccia seems to remind us, goes beyond economics or social class.

Richard Grant and Anya Chalotra

As the Catholic Saint Josemaría Escrivá once said, “Work is the initial vocation of man, a blessing from God, not a punishment.” Through his words and through Jesus’s example as a carpenter, Escrivá saw work as a form of spiritual offering and prayer, a way to build a better world. Whether you’re a doctor, an engineer, a teacher, or a mother running a household, every act of work, when done with purpose, has dignity and transformative power.

In that light, the theme Miuccia chose feels almost revolutionary. Instead of celebrating power suits or glamour, she turned her gaze to the invisible side of effort, uniforms, aprons, the quiet pride of getting things done.

Miuccia’s Inspiration for Miu Miu SS26

The aesthetic of the SS26 collection was inspired by Women at Work, a photography book by Helga Paris. The German artist spent weeks inside a state-owned clothing factory in East Germany during the 1980s, capturing over 1,500 images of women at their sewing machines, surrounded by the raw reality of communist realism.

@Helga Paris

That visual language, the muted tones, the pragmatic silhouettes, the melancholy of repetition, is the creative playground of stylist Lotta Volkova. Lotta has a fascination with Eastern Bloc aesthetics, the one which defines much of Miu Miu’s recent mood. The models’ tired gazes, their emotionless faces, with a sense of hopelessness, seem to echo that same world: workers in a fictional Soviet factory, trapped in a reality without freedom or individualism.

Sandra Hüller and Milla Jovovich

What is the Relationship of Prada Group With Its Female Workforce?

Since Miu Miu chose to explore such a serious and layered theme, we did a little digging to understand how things really work inside the Prada Group, the parent company behind Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s, Car Shoe, Marchesi 1824, Luna Rossa, and now Versace.

According to Prada’s most recent sustainability and annual reports, women represent more than half of the Group’s global workforce. 44 % of top management positions and 45 % of the Board of Directors are female. These figures place Prada among the most gender-balanced luxury conglomerates in Europe. The company also maintains a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council to ensure fair pay, equal career opportunities, and continuous internal training.

Miu Miu SS26 – So, is it women washing?

Prada’s Italian production sites, like its knitwear factory in Umbria, where over 70 % of employees are women, show how the house’s heritage depends on female craftsmanship. The Group also partners with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Fashion Expressions: The Stories She Wears, a project offering women artisans in Africa and Latin America technical, financial, and health education. It’s a rare bridge between luxury and social empowerment.

But external reports add nuance. The World Benchmarking Alliance gives Prada a modest 12.7/100 for gender equality, noting a lack of transparency around global parental leave, workplace harassment policies, and supplier-level gender equity. While the UK branch reports almost perfect pay parity, with women earning slightly more on average, similar data isn’t published elsewhere.

In short, Prada’s picture is ambitious. Its leadership numbers are strong, and its educational initiatives are real. Yet, the lingering question remains: how far do these values reach beyond Italian ateliers and glossy annual reports? Do the women who stitch, sell, and sustain Miu Miu’s world feel as empowered as the runway pretends they are?

Final Thoughts — The Apron and the Paradox

Maybe Miuccia Prada wasn’t trying to be political at all. Maybe the aprons, the dull colours, and the melancholy faces were simply her way of showing that elegance and exhaustion often coexist. After all, who hasn’t felt like a tired heroine halfway through her own 9-to-5 epic?

Fashion, like work, is made of contradictions. It romanticises effort, then hides the calluses. It applauds women’s resilience, then sells it back in the form of a luxury uniform. But if Miu Miu SS26 reminded us of anything, it’s that women’s work, whether in ateliers, classrooms, kitchens or catwalks, remains the invisible architecture holding society together.

So, is it women washing? Maybe. Or maybe it’s something better: a mirror. A slightly uncomfortable one, yes, but one that reflects both the glamour and the grind of being a woman in 2025. Still working, still building, still beautiful in her apron.

Images courtesy @MiuMiu and @HelgaParis