Prada S/S 2014 Milan

[shanhuq]

We've been having such a boring and dull season so far and this great collection came. I love everything about it! The clothes, the socks, the cast, shoes, music it all just went together perfectly. It was a fun collection for summer and nicely positive. Reminds me alot of the spring 2005 collection and fall 2007 tho.

 

[VersaceVixen009]

I found the same problem in this collection as I did with Fendi: While the concept of the collection was great, its not very wearable for everyday life IMO. However I will say the accessories were AMAZING, loved the bags, the leg warmers and bracelets. Get ready to see this collection get eaten up in editorials.

 

[SabrinaNicole]

Face print is very Paris Hilton/mid 2000s; it perhaps ties in with this year's rise of the selfie. Artful and will editorialize well.

 

[Jinadaze]

You actually used Gaga as a reference? Let alone as someone who came up with an idea like that on her own?

Jeez.

You need to do your homework...

No, I never said that, maybe you should double check.

 

[LabelWhore4]

Well I don't hate it but I'd hardly say I love it. Its the most interesting collection I've seen this season...

 

[GivenchyHomme]

Who cares about wearability? These are "Fashion" collections. If you want basics New York is the place to go. When you make most of your profits on accessories you can take risks like this. It will be watered down by the time it hits the shops anyways.

 

[Prairie]

Prada RTW Spring 2014

In an explosion of guts and sartorial glory, Miuccia Prada celebrated a new-age power woman who wears her audacity and feminine strength more as beacon than armor. The designer made the collection she showed on Thursday deliberately jarring as suited her admitted political agenda. It was fabulous.

“I’m fixated with the idea of women of strength,” Prada said after the show. “There is a necessity to be strong, visible, fighters, and this is an encouragement to be out there and to do something.

“It’s absurd, against the rules; it’s a happy collection,” she continued. “You need to be fighting. It’s about a debate about women; it’s a political discourse: ‘I’m allowed to do whatever I want to do with clothes.’ If they see you, they listen.”

Whatever the lady wants indeed. In this case, she wanted and delivered tons. Prada showed in her usual venue, the space now transformed by huge murals (inspired by Diego Rivera and other Mexican muralists) of women’s portraits commissioned from six contemporary artists. She imposed no constraints on the artists other than “an active, strong woman.”

Originally, she didn’t want to re-create the images on the clothes — too obvious. Nor would she allow the paintings (or their political motivation) to trump her fashion — not a chance. “Art did not change the design. I speak with my rules as a professional designer,” she said.

To wit, here was a remarkable oddity of overstatement and control (one that made minimalism feel, in the moment at least, so Nineties). The portraiture provided the primary leitmotif — big, bold, colorful faces on dresses, coats and skirts. They came printed, jeweled and in fur intarsias, merged with high-gloss, demonstrative embroideries, colorblocking and intricate cuts.

Prada’s “I am woman” proclamation showed up overtly in an emphasis on the bosom: keyholes cut into bright, solid shifts bedecked with chunky embroideries; intensely jeweled external bras, including a pair positioned to look like Boudica headdresses on two of the portraits.

Sports references continued the message of strength; the girls wore striped legwarmers and, sometimes, Prada’s take on Tevas. (The second such take this season; one more sighting, and will this most unsexy of shoes become a cool-girl trend?)

It all pulsed with vibrant tension and fearlessness of the most compelling kind — the kind with extreme talent backing up the bravado.

wwd.com

 

[jeanclaude]

Jean Paul Gaultier?

Bingo!! ;-)

 

[ogepma]

What a terrific collection! I just can't get enough of it! The excess embellishments, the art work, the colors, the accessories - i love it all. This has got to be one of Miucca's best collections in a while although it felt a little more miu miu than Prada to me. I can see this selling out completely. Possibly the best collection so far this season.

 

[nudeunderwater]

Yikes.. it looks like a train wreck. I know it's "exciting" and it shouldn't matter if it's wearable but I just don't agree with any of the design aesthetic.. that's just me.

 

[lelaid]

Half of it I love and half of it I hate. I simply cannot get behind the face print. It creeps me out and isn't attractive at all imo.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Face print is very Paris Hilton/mid 2000s; it perhaps ties in with this year's rise of the selfie. Artful and will editorialize well.

Apparently the face print is a "feminist statement" according to style.com's review. I'm not sure I see that. And certainly "selfies" are not in the least bit feminist; they are narcissism par excellence (hence Paris Hilton, ha ha).

I do think the bags work.

 

[YoninahAliza]

My favorite pieces from this Prada collection are the one's with the faces on them. They aren't necessarily the most wearable items from the collection but they are certainly the most eye catching and interesting. There is a lot to take in with this collection, as always the use of color is spot on, but since their are so many details it can be a bit much to look at. Which is why I like the photographs of closeups of particular pieces, it helps to break it down. As for the collection being a feminist statement... I'm still mulling over my thoughts on that.

 

[SabrinaNicole]

I have a DVF face print tank somewhere..... I thought of selling it, but now that it's in again, I might wear it.

 

[CommanderTMugler]

Oh Miuccia, that silhouette is so innovative and groundbreaking! Who would have thought!? And that sex appeal from those tops, chic! That styling is just the right amount of edginess and crossover. Such a vision!

Anyways....

I always have a hate and love relationship with the styling of her runway shows, the editors will eat it up and the runway pieces will appear everywhere on print but we will never see the light of day of said pieces in real life, (Unless it's on Anna Dello Russo for the sake of wearing the coat then returning it 20 minutes after she was photographed wearing it). In a way it's Haute Couture just showing the potential of embellishments and cuts then the customer can decide the what the final piece will be if they pay up but on sale on the racks we will see the same cuts in the coats and dresses with the bikini top gone solid in basic (yet "timeless") colors/furs. If needed a custom gown will be embellished like those tops from top to bottom. The bags and shoes will be everywhere so it doesn't matter that they are shown with those hideous top socks.

 

[mackos]

Reading the WWD review, this is exactly the feeling I got from this show.

A truly fabulous collection. Bold, energetic, quirky with a dash of sport feeling - such a joy and so many things to love about it. The socks feel so good with these dresses and her Spring/Summer fur coats look just as great.

 

[elle_gb]

I love it, it is fun to see the way she interpreted things into a collection and the result is pretty impressive.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

I have been looking at this collection ever since photos starting surfacing online, and my first reaction was "God, this is awful!" Then I kept re-looking at it, like most others, allotting Prada time to process and eventually digest. But when one thinks "Would I do the same for another designer, especially one less establish/revered?" I don't think I (or most) would. This collection was a contrived mess. Its biggest failure being the fatuous styling. I understand, and agree, that this is a fashion SHOW and risks are encouraged, it affords one the ability to be frivolous, but this passed into kitschy or downright ridiculous - bejeweled calf socks? Embellished bras over coats? Really?! The clothes themselves were overworked with too many embellishments and layering. The heaviness off it all combined with the sack-like shapes made a lot of it very unflattering. There were a few pieces that would look great on their own, but not enough to save the collection.
Prada is often placed on this pedestal where the collections have to dissected and overanalyzed. People (critics included) override their initial reactions because most don't want to appear to not understand, when most times it is JUST ugly and superfluous. Obviously this does not go for everyone, or every collection (Miuccia is after all a BRILLIANT designer). Some may genuinely enjoy this collection, but I think there are many (again) giving Miuccia a pass because she is Miuccia.

 

[VerdeShimmer]

Hard to take any of this seriously..It reminds me of a street style costume. Like if you would go to a costume store and see a "wacky street style fashionista" option for sale lol.

This! I just can't get with anything. Too much of everything...that is bad.

 

[GirlGoneChic]

It's funny how we condemn those who see an awful collection and justify it by saying "It's fashion", yet people are pardoning Miuccia Prada because of their reverence for her and her status in the industry. This collection was not great, despite the attempts to connect it to culture with the murals that are both on the walls and, more unfortunately, on the coats.