The third round of Prada’s Iconoclasts project has kicked off in Milan with celebrated stylist and editor, Olivier Rizzo at the helm. The only male stylist taking part in the event, Rizzo has, rather conversely, been designated the single Iconoclast store dedicated to women’s wear. Mannequins clad in white huddle together in the window display, standing strong against a cluster of black figures behind, almost like shadows cast against the light - with Rizzo’s stylistic stamp made well before you set foot onto Prada’s sumptuous white-grape carpeting, you know you are in for a treat.
The monochromatic statement made in the window is repeated throughout the ground floor and deep into the first. further into the first floor however, richer, lighter tones take over - filtering from Navy into brown, gold into beige before finally returning to pure, unadulterated white.
As with Katie Grand’s stylistic accomplishments on the London leg of the Iconoclast tour, Rizzo has liberally mingled a few menswear pieces into the mix. Alongside the mannish plain cotton jersey pieces, archive garments and memorable items from Prada’s recent history - including the much-loved bottle-top sequins – brought a sense of diversity to Rizzo’s smart set-up.
Along with the graceful chromatic simplicity directing proceedings across the floors, Rizzo has endeavoured to give customers a few extra extravagances to keep them enthralled. Whilst we adored the sumptuously decorated boudoir room in the back of the store, Rizzo’s ‘guilty pleasure room’, filled with patterns and eclectic prints, was particularly inspired.
Here mixed this season’s python prints, with re-editioned pieces from 2003’s remarkable Holiday & Brown project (soon to be used in the packaging of the new Infusion de Fleur d'Oranger perfume). Some of the outstanding prints from the last resort collection were also present.
Topping things off with a suitably sophisticated flourish, all store staff were chicly clad in 1950s style tubino dresses, and will remain so throughout the week. Rizzo claims to be obsessed with detail, and if these added touches are anything to go by, he is not prone to exaggeration.
