It looks like she'll be in Paris after all!
MINI, mod and Pocahontas were keywords of the second big day of Milan shows, as designers made
short work of the spring-summer 2007 season.
Prada devotees have learned to expect the unexpected and Miuccia Prada did not disappoint on Tuesday with an intriguing, apparently 1940s-influenced collection in jewel-coloured Duchesse satin, sheer organza and calf. The leitmotiv of pubis-grazing skirts seemed to belie the designer's feminist roots.
Backstage, Prada explained that the skirts were really designed to be worn layered over other skirts or trousers.
"If you put it with a skirt, it becomes a tunic," insisted Prada. "It shouldn't be a miniskirt".
By contrast with the barely there bottoms, the collection's tops mostly featured high necks and long sleeves. One fringed, calf Native American-look shift dress - described by Prada as "another typical feminist, kind of tacky idea" - boasted long sleeves, an odd idea for the Australian summer at least.
"When your own initials are enough," read the inscription across the back of the runway at the show for Bottega Veneta, the world's least-hyped, but fastest-growing luxury brand which enjoyed an 81 per cent sales surge in the last quarter.
Under its creative director, Tomas Maier, Bottega Veneta produces exquisitely crafted evening wear fashioned from unusual, day-for-night fabrics. After winter's tailored flannel goddess gowns - one of which ended up on Maggie Gyllenhaal at the Oscars - comes summer's voluminous, waistless cloud dresses in neutral tones made from terribly unglamorous nylon seersucker.
"It's the way the clothes are made, the way the bags are made, they are constructed completely seamless, that's a luxury," Maier told the Herald.
Also opting for an earthy palette and the omnipresent tent and shift silhouettes, Marni injected yet more Sixties chic with some wet-look vinyl tabards, coats and dresses. These were a counterpoint against the season's equally omnipresent leggings, in Marni's case complete with a sporty white leg stripe.
Meanwhile, the Gemma Ward mystery deepened with official word from the Australian model's New York agency, IMG, that she had indeed been unavoidably detained in Los Angeles on film work. Contrary to some speculation, however, what is keeping Ward in Los Angeles is not filming for the coming feature Strangers in which she is to co-star with Liv Tyler.
According to an IMG spokesman, Strangers does not start shooting until late October. Ward was busy with film work, he said, but on Friday will fly to Paris where she will "definitely" be taking part in those collections which begin on Sunday.