At the beginning of this season, frustrated by the fact that I live somewhere that is cold six months of the year and yet never seem to have an appropriate piece of outerwear, I made the indulgent decision to purchase two Miu Miu coats. In my defense, I got both secondhand! One was a once-in-a-blue-(fur)-moon stroke of luck that I happened upon in New Orleans, and one was a very reasonable $200 on Grailed (which felt less reasonable as I waited two months for it to ship from Malaysia but was delightful nonetheless)! These coats are preferable to the alternatives already in my wardrobe–their competition is a battered puffer jacket and a plain black swing coat left over from my first pregnancy–but there’s also no denying that they feel special.
It’s been below freezing in New York nearly every day this month, which means that I have become intimately acquainted with my coats, and I have had ample time to consider just what it is that gives some of them more magic than others. I’ve had buttons on my mind a lot as of late, and I am more convinced of their importance with each passing day. Just look at this campaign image of Miu Miu F/W 2017 from whence my coat hails (or watch the the wonderful film which, funnily enough, was shot in New Orleans).
There’s so much to take in–the candyfloss-coloured fur, the shocks of snakeskin, the spangles of diamonds–and yet my eye rests on the buttons. They’re slick, just a bit strange, and a necessary dose of tightly-fastened sensibility amongst all this madness. This phenomenon is by no means unique to Miu Miu (though I am coming to see it as a critical element in the ineffable secret sauce of Miuccia Prada), nor does it strictly pertain to coats. The truth is simple: a good button changes everything..,
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