In braided leather hung with brushed steel lobster clips and D-rings, like dregs of a functional past transformed into ornament, this Miu Miu tool belt is a reminder of Miuccia Prada’s fascination with use. Remember that old idea, so often seemingly pushed to the wayside in fashion? Well, Prada has had a love affair with pragmatism from her very earliest days: if not lifelong, it certainly spans more than her career as a fashion designer. Before she began to make clothes for herself, Prada used to buy looks from uniform suppliers, and there still clings a butcher, baker, expensive Saffiano trunk-maker quality to her clothes, with their boxy cuts and intentionally dishwater-dull colours. She even made beaded name tags for a Miu Miu collection about a decade ago. Her Spring/Summer 2026 collection for that line was, arguably, the apotheosis of this approach, with apron wrapped and chore jacketed models marching through an audience seated in a facsimile of a factory dining hall at lunchtime. This belt originated there, and although undeniably luxurious, its purported purpose hasn’t become vestigial – these tricks and fastenings still work, you could hang a hammer and a couple of spanners off them and off to work you go.
The Miu Miu leather belt is available to buy now.
