Miu Miu to show in Paris

Miu Miu will skip Milan Fashion Week this season and present the new collection in Paris in an effort to boost demand for Prada's younger brand. Miu Miu is opting for Paris to help buyers and press better distinguish Miu Miu from its Prada and Jil Sander labels. Miu Miu's sales grew more than 10 percent last year and may help Prada return to profit after it lost money for the first time last year, analysts said.

"In Milan , Miu Miu was crushed by Prada," said Armando Branchini, vice president of Intercorporate, a luxury goods consulting company. "The strategy is clearly to give Miu Miu some autonomy." Prada is trying to revive its business after postponing three attempts to go public in as many years. Prada is betting that a new city will spur demand for Miu Miu as more designers tailor the location of their shows to the audience they're targeting.

Designers who favor the New York fashion shows say it's the best platform for sportswear, and this season it has lured Malo and Diesel away from Italy . Milan 's fashion week is mostly for Italian luxury brands or those that make their clothes in the country, such as Dolce e Gabbana. And Paris shows are viewed as the hub for the creative brands, attracting Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf , Belgium 's Martin Margiela and Japan 's Yohji Yamamoto in addition to classic French brands such as Chanel.

London , where the first fashion show took place in 1905, attracts avant-garde designers such as Julien MacDonald and Gareth Pugh, but its fashion week has so far failed to establish itself as a must-see with buyers and editors. Prada will show its namesake collection in Milan this week, along with that of Jil Sander, where designer Raf Simons will show his first women's designs for the house after its founding designer left for the second time in November.

Showing Miu Miu in Paris should present the clothes in a more sophisticated context and help give the brand a separate identity. It will also give designer Miuccia Prada two more weeks to prepare the Miu Miu collection. Miuccia Prada created Miu Miu, using her nickname for the brand, 13 years ago with the idea of attracting the younger sister of the Prada consumer. It had more than 100 million euros in sales last year.