PERUSE IT: Fostering its cultural approach to fashion and lifestyle, Miu Miu hosted the sophomore edition of its “Summer Reads” event this past weekend.

Held in in key cities around the world, such as Milan, Paris, Beijing, Hong Kong and Osaka, the literary initiatives took over green spaces in each location, including the Giardino delle Arti in Milan and the Chaoyang Park in Beijing.

Visitors were gifted copies of two literary classics selected by Miu Miu: the 1954 novel “The Inseparables” by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir and the 1957 novel “The Waiting Years” by Fumiko Enchi, the pen name for Fumi Ueda, one of the most prominent female authors of the Shöwa era in Japan.

The selected titles were wrapped in special Miu Miu packaging, customized with different colors and a dedicated bookplate, bookmark, reading clip and stamp for each location.

Both writers and titles are not new to Miu Miu. They were already selected last April for the second edition of the Miu Miu Literary Club initiative held during Milan Design Week. The goal was to promote literature and the arts with a schedule of talks, readings and live music performances to evoke the spirit of literary salons and artist collectives of yore.

Miu Miu’s Summer Reads is in sync with Miuccia Prada‘s wish to create a space for ideas and conversation around emancipation and women’s empowerment with the Miu Miu brand — in addition to directional and innovative collections.

In the same vein, for example, the Miu Miu Women’s Tales, the series of short films introduced in 2011, have been allowing women directors to speak up and offer their points of view, remaining one of the only consistent commissioning platforms exclusively for female filmmakers.

Similarly, the “Tales & Tellers” event, launched in Paris during Art Basel in October 2024 and replicated with a second installment last May in New York during Frieze Week, is billed as an intersection between “fashion, cinema and art,” which includes film commissions from Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales.