That it certainly did: lining the hall were screens displaying all 28 of the Women’s Tales films, variously displayed across shimmering circular LEDs, TV monitors affixed to cages and placed on sunloungers, and even a screen embedded into a skateboard. In what felt more like a work of immersive theater than your average art opening—Macuga herself aspired to create an atmosphere like that of a “lively town square”—crowds flocked around the performers as they recreated stand-up routines or sang mournful cabaret songs at a microphone. For many of the filmmakers and artists whose films were being revived, nearly all of whom were there in person to witness it, the experience was an emotional one. Zola director Janicza Bravo—whose Kelsey Lu and Natasha Lyonne-starring 2022 Women’s Tales film House Comes With a Bird remains one of the series’ standouts—likened the community of women filmmakers coming together as something akin to a family reunion. Another filmmaker described the event, with a wink, as the Miu Miu Eras Tour.
Photo: Courtesy of Miu Miu
For Macuga, who only had 10 days between creating the ambitious set for Miu Miu’s spring 2025 show in the same venue and staging this week’s exhibition, the experience has been something of a whirlwind. “Originally, we envisioned the exhibition and the runway show as one cohesive project,” she explained, noting that the connecting tissue was the newspapers handed out at both events: aesthetic objects in their own right that featured QR codes that linked to newly commissioned texts grappling with the themes of authorship and identity that the exhibition explores. It was hard not to draw a parallel between the hidden layers of meaning underneath the visible object and the broader Miu Miu design philosophy: a world in which an item of clothing is never just an item of clothing, but a chapter within a sprawling, ever-evolving tale. “It’s as if each garment carries its own story, adding another layer to the overall narrative,” Macuga added.
Next, however, it was on to Maxim’s—the legendary Paris restaurant once frequented by the likes of Josephine Baker and Jean Cocteau, which reopened earlier this year with a sensitive refresh of its dazzling Belle Époque interiors—for dinner. As cheese soufflés and Champagne were circulated, the filmmakers compared notes on the reinterpretations of their projects; after everyone found their seats in the dining room under a decorative Art Nouveau glass ceiling, conversation quickly turned to the highlights of this year’s fall film festivals over platters of figs, artichokes, and shrimp doused in ponzu hollandaise rustled up by chef Sven Chartier.
It says something about the crowd assembled that the most head-turning entrance was that of Mrs. Prada herself, who rolled up her sleeves to greet guests before sitting down for dinner. And as everyone eventually headed off into the drizzly Parisian night, she ended up being one of the last to leave—still holding court on a tucked-away table as midnight approached, engaged in deep conversation with a group of friends. Clearly, where Miu Miu is concerned, there are still plenty more tales to be told.
