Editor’s Note: Featuring the good, the bad and the ugly, ‘Look of the Week’ is a regular series dedicated to unpacking the most talked about outfit of the last seven days.
A black crewneck, mid-wash jeans, white blazer and a distressed denim Miu Miu cap. No, this isn’t an off-duty look from Sydney Sweeney or Emma Chamberlain — it’s the latest outfit worn by British comedian and octogenarian John Cleese.
On Friday, Cleese — who is best known as a founding member of UK comedy troupe Monty Python, as well as the star and co-creator of British sitcom “Fawlty Towers” — stepped out in the unseasonable London sunshine with a $550 appliqué denim logo cap from Miu Miu shielding his eyes.
Of course, we have questions. In a mad dash to make a radio show appearance, did Cleese blindly reach for the nearest baseball hat? Was it simply left in the vestibule by his model-turned-comedian daughter, Camilla Cleese? Or is the senior a dedicated Miu Miu man? It wouldn’t be the first time a comedian had a penchant for fashion. In the 1990s, Robin Williams was spotted on the red carpet in pieces from Jean Paul-Gaultier, Issey Miyake and Alexander McQueen.
Miuccia Prada’s second label, founded in 1992, has beat it’s bigger sister Prada to the top spot on Lyst’s Hottest Brand Index twice — a metric that measures the public’s interest in luxury fashion houses. According to the platform, searches for Miu Miu this year have increased 57%, while the brand also reported significant growth in the first quarter of 2024 — with sales up a record 89%.
Miu Miu informed CNN that the comedian is not an official brand ambassador, confirming that the hat is instead a rare instance of organic marketing. But perhaps he should be on the affiliate roster, because Cleese is a surprisingly fitting embodiment of the Miu Miu mantra.
Originally billed as the spry, sometimes juvenile sibling to grown-up Prada, Miu Miu has not so much rebranded as redefined its vision of youth. “I say to myself every single morning, ‘I have to decide if I am a 15-year-old girl or a lady near death,’” Miuccia Prada said after the Fall-Winter 2024 show.
The Italian label has succeeded in striking a balance between its Gen Z ambassadors (Emma Chamberlain, Ayo Edebiri, Emma Corrin, to name a few) and those above 50. In September, 63-year-old British actor Kristen Scott Thomas walked the runway for Miu Miu at Paris Fashion Week, along with 70-year-old Dr Qiu Huilan — who was promoted from loyal customer to catwalk model overnight after being invited to participate by the brand on Instagram. Instead of nailing itself to a literal interpretation, Miu Miu has cultivated an emphasis on youthful energy — of which Cleese oozes (somewhat literally, too, thanks to the £17,000 cosmetic stem cell therapy treatment he has been receiving annually for the last 20 years).
Speaking to host Chris Evans on Virgin Radio on Friday, the comedian recalled a recent meet-up with the other founding fathers of Monty Python, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam. “I said it was 18 feet of Python,” he told Evans. “And it was good to see them again. We’re very silly. We’re disgraceful for old people. Because old people are supposed to be sort of dignified.”
