Prada faces up to the future
By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2005
"I want to cancel out beauty, cancel out nostalgia - we don't know where we are now or where we are going," said Miuccia Prada, whose powerful show reflected the complex thoughts of Italy's fashion leader - and sent the runway images in Tuesday's show reflecting in a mirrored space as if to infinity.
The result was a show that put a definitive end to ladylike looks and took Prada back to the weird modernity of its early years, with linear cuts and knife-sharp pleats, mostly at the back. Deliberately off-key accessories, like shocking-pink patent shoes, bright lipstick and wrinkled, over-the-knee woollen hose, made the prettiest summer dress look slightly menacing.
Similarly, stenciled flower patterns and wooden beading were white-washed over, lest they appear in their true beauty. And many of the light-colored summer dresses, their short frilled sleeves slipping gracefully down the arms, had broad black straps at the shoulders, while the most persistent decoration was a grid of lines, as if these dresses had been marked by age and time.
Prada is right when she says we are all attracted to beauty and nostalgia. But the designer is brilliantly effective at capturing the awkward, eerie, jittery present, when women are both glamazons striding out in shirts and shorts and girlish in their desire for pretty, pale dresses. She makes women rethink what is the reality of femininity and the essence of workwear. Big bags held purposefully under the arm , roll-along luggage with Prada's 1913 logo and shoes that varied between high-heeled pumps and bamboo platforms like Chinese footwear put the focus on Prada's essential accessories.
Taken at face value, the clothes, majoring on dresses, were elegant, perfectly made and desirable. But like the wrinkle that gives a face character, there was more to a dress with a raw edge, a strange print or powder blue, pink and peach colors.
Or as Prada herself put it: "The collection has a girly edge - but in the end it is nasty."