Short haircuts for women have been big in 2025—and undoubtedly it’s been the year of the bob in various shapes and sizes—the wolfcuts, the lob, the puffy bob, etcetera. With Miu Miu fall 2025, Miuccia Prada’s parade of characterful, intergenerational models proposed another cropped hair silhouette in a show that asked questions of femininity right now.

“Do we need femininity in this difficult time to lift us up?” Prada asked. “The typical accessories of femininity: the bra, the brooches, the fur…the question is what do we retain of femininity?”

For many people, there’s a haircut that will recall a grandma or elderly relative—often it’s a somewhat square shape, that sits at the nape of the neck, like my own nonna. She had a weekly salon appointment that she reverently attended to have it shaped, always kept intact with several layers of hairspray. It was her trademark style—and it’s what immediately came to mind upon seeing Mrs. Prada’s zany, stylish ladies.

It was a season of bourgeois Milanese lady-gone-wrong: wearing knee socks in a ton of colors, skinny lurex sweaters, bias-cut half slip skirts, fake fur stoles, and conical bras. As Sarah Mower outlined in her Vogue Runway review, this isn’t the first time that Prada has made a reference to the 1950s—but the beauty moments felt particularly striking.

Breaking down the Miu Miu grandma cut

Photo: Salvatore Dragone / Gorunway.com

Photo: Salvatore Dragone / Gorunway.com

Models wore hair that spoke to nostalgia, but styled in a fresh new way, cut in three lengths: ear length, over the shoulder with the ends turned in, and with a cropped back. The Italian nonna of the ’50s haircut as seen at Miu Miu is mostly one length, giving you the ability to have all-round dimension and thickness. Short haircuts for women can be easily maintained, and despite what you might think, don’t require that much time or effort.

The key to the cut is not only the length and height, but its styling. Give yourself a blowout with a large round hairbrush to give yourself as much height at the roots as possible. Most importantly: it should look a bit stiff and product-heavy, so don’t be afraid of really getting in there with thickening mousse, cream, or hairspray. The more triangular and sculptural it looks, the better. Pull any face-framing pieces up and above your hairline.

There feels a particular sense of power in reclaiming this “frump” aesthetic—it feels assuredly lived in, intensely knowing of yourself and your style no matter what. As immovable and unwavering as a dense thicket of hairsprayed hair. Isn’t that what we come to hope for and admire of our matriarchs? Fierce grandmotherly style made contemporary—save it for your next hair appointment, andiamo!