Miuccia Prada Profile

[Lena]

be on the look out for Miuccia's interview

ALL ABOUT MIUCCIA: She clearly had a lot to say about a lot of things, including her tempestuous marriage. The centerpiece to next week’s style special of The New Yorker is an 8,000-word profile of Miuccia Prada written by Michael Specter that captures, warts and all, the marriage of Prada and her chief executive husband, Patrizio Bertelli.

The magazine is keeping her more choice words about him under wraps, but it was willing to share Prada’s defense of her empire to her former Marxist friends. “I have a kind of complex of this work being superficial and dumb,” she says in the piece. “It’s my personal drama. Not the world’s. Everyone who is smart says they hate fashion, that it’s such a waste of time. I have asked many super-serious people, ‘Then why is fashion so popular?’ Nobody can answer that question. But somebody must be interested, because when I go to the stores, the people are there. Thousands of them.” — Greg Lindsay

 

[ignitioned32]

Thanks She is smart!

 

[Orochian]

Can't wait to read it. I think she hits the nail right in the head about this dichotomy between fashion and intellect. I for one am very often hesitant to let my friends or acquaintances to know about my keen interest in fashion, for the fear of being perceived as dumb and vain. But deep down I know I shouldn't feel that way.

All other fields of design, be it industrial, interior, or architecture, are held in high regard by society as a worthwhile and scholarly pursuit - and just what makes fashion any less so? Of all the artifacts that humans are known to create, clothes come in the closest and most frequent contact with the human body, and well designed clothes can surely enhance our lives like any other well designed products would. The general public's perception of fashion as a frilly, indulgent, conspicuous, and unconstructive past-time for elitists are, IMO, very much due to the bad apples in our tree, and I have no hesitation in naming Galliano to be a prime example of that. On the other hand, I don't think even a rhodes scholar can call Jil Sander's work frilly or indulgent.

Miuccia Prada is a profound person, and it shows in her clothes just as much as in her words. We need more designers like her.

 

[coconut]

Thank you Lena. This place's such a great resource. i've been around for quite some time now but seldom post, just wanted to let you know that there are many people who follow, enjoy and make good use of things found on this board.
Anyway I just wanted to add this quote which i really loved from another magazine to this prada post.
""What I think is completely wrong at this time is anything that is fake or pretending to be something it's not. Like this fake avang-garde we have seen for the last ten years - avant-guard? But an avant-garde of what? - or this fake luxury, which isn't luxury at all. In a way the seriousness of the moment in general highlights bullsh*t: really have something to say or say nothing. What has been interesting this year is that everyone has been desperately searching for something, trying out different things, and then all of a sudden there seemed to be a feeling that this was the start of something new. In many ways i think it has been about the courage to say what you really mean, we do clothes, let's do clothes. It was time to take a decision, no tricks, and say, okay this is the point. At present i'm interested in the reality of beauty, the reality of intelligence, the reality of useful. Ultimately, we are not artists, I've never pretended to be an artist. Fashion is an applied art, there has to be a use, clothes have to make sense to people. Anything that is connected to reality is the thing that i'm interested in, anything that makes sense" "

 

[Lena]

Originally posted by coconut@Mar 5th, 2004 - 2:07 pm
Miuccia:
"At present i'm interested in the reality of beauty, the reality of intelligence, the reality of useful. Ultimately, we are not artists, I've never pretended to be an artist. Fashion is an applied art, there has to be a use, clothes have to make sense to people. Anything that is connected to reality is the thing that i'm interested in, anything that makes sense"

i so absolutely agree with her views mainly with this extract here
she's been honest and very well placed, i wish more were on Miuccia's mood.
pretentiousness is useless and OLD.

thanks for the very interesting Miuccia input coconut
you should post more often you know...

 

[coconut]

thanks.

 

[softgrey]

first-lena-thanks for the post

second-coconut-i'd like to echo lena's sentiment that you post more often...that quote was genius...

i have my own issues with what i do for a living...i am often wary of telling people i meet that i work in the fashion industry...what i have found, however, is that most people, even the ones with master's degrees from ivy league schools, are fascinated and intrigued by it...much to my surprise...they ask all sorts of questions and become very excited...i've always found that odd...

i agree with the statement miuccia makes about fashion as an applied art...that is the best description of it that i can think of...


if it's not useful...it's useless...

 

[Lena]

Originally posted by softgrey@Mar 5th, 2004 - 10:00 pm
if it's not useful...it's useless...

thats so VERY true

people that find the fashion superficial,
are in urgent need for a soft intro to sociological dynamics and norms

 

[asta]

i can't wait to read it!

 

[tott]

Originally posted by Lena@Mar 5th, 2004 - 8:10 pm
people that find the fashion superficial,
are in urgent need for a soft intro to sociological dynamics and norms

I guess so.

I have to try to find this magazine, she seems so clever, and I'm such a Pradaholic...

Thanks for the tip, Lena!