Prada Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Prada took the audience back in time with her menswear-collection. She wanted return to something simple she told editors. Simpel it was, for instance no prints, no funny colors. There were seventies silhouettes and vintage-colors, but what stood out was the graphic play with colors blocking and contrast. The underlying feeling was sporty and athletic, like the tank tops and tennis sweaters plus the sports-slippers.

The shapes were straightforward: two-button suits with patch pockets and slightly flared pants,  polo shirts with contrasting collars and plackets, short-sleeve leisure jackets and tubular coats.  A band of contrasting color flashed inside the pant legs. Broad borders appeared on trim, lightweight coats.

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2012

Strength and the power of beauty, those seemed to be the idea s behind the Prada fall 2012 collection. The clothes were elegant, though a bit heavy sometimes, and contained all the classic elements Prada’s known for: the black, the appliqued stones, the suit, the awkward colors and vintage prints. New was the layered silhouette, that sometimes reminded of the way modern Muslim-women dress. The tailoring emphasized the high waist and long line as well as pants. Black dominated, followed by mustard, blue, orange and brown/pink. There were belted jackets, coats, tunics and dresses topping pants which were cut above the ankles.

Shoes were (platform) high, with a round toe and decorated. Bags started out big, but in the end  the became so small they could only carry an iPhone.

 

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2012

Again, powerdressing was the theme of a collection. And what a collection. Miuccia Prada said goodbye to all the cheerful bold colors and prints of last season and embraced the powerful men. To the press she described the collection as a riff on powerful men, and how fashion can telegraph authority, might or supremacy. Clothing is a tool of power and a way to express male vanity, she said. Yes, we knew that already.

Dressed in severe coats reminding of Eastern Bloc military dress, the models and actors Willem Dafoe, Tim Roth, Adrien Brody and Gary Oldman walked a massive, carpeted space. The first outfit set a military tone: a smart dark coat over a white turtleneck, slim pants and gleaming dress shoes. Belted coats in lightweight wool played a major part and they were often decorated with badges over the heart. Colors were of course a bit off beat, mustard, purple, grey and black – and the fabrics looked vintage.

Check out the video of the show below.

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear ss2012

Shiny, streamlined and sexy like a car, that was Prada’s ss2012 womenswear-collection. The sweet colors, full (pleated) skirts and carcoats reminded of the Fifties but of course Miucca Prada added her own modern touch by the use of fabrics, prints and accessories. And instead of last summer’s bananas she presented another print that surely will be copied sooner or later: cartoon cars and Thunderbird-flames.

There was more, of course:  grey felt coats with appliqué flowers all over the front in blue and cream or in orange and green; stiff, pleated skirts worn to the knee with Thunderbird-flames in pale pink broderie anglaise; cotton tube tops worn over pencil skirts; cotton house coats in pale blue with lapels in a contrasting print;  dresses with elastic in the waist. This was certainly a collection to be remembered.

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2012

No doubt Miuccia Prada is into golf. Her new ss2012 menswear-collection screamed golf from head to toe. From the oversized caps to the shoes and colorful bags with clubs. She must have been on the green lately and asked herself why those golfers looked so geeky and dressed so bored. And she decided to draw a totally new world. Literary. The setting of the Prada show was unreal, as in colors and prints that were to bright, outfits that looked out of this world, too green fake grass and kitchy, shiny clubs.

But you’ll never know with Prada. The collection was a strange, casual mix of vintage-looking golfwear, rhinestone western-jackets, Sixties-inspired flowerprints and Fifties-inspired comics of jazz-musicians. Black, blue and gray played with faded yellow, blue and taupe. The silhouette was slender, with straight pants topped with double breasted jackets, a pullover, a polo or a short jacket. Scarves tied in the neck instead of ties. It all reminded me of the cliche-image people have of American men in the fifties. You’re shocked at first view, but at second sight you admire them for their courage. It’ll make the world a lot more brighter.

Arnhem Mode Biennale 2011: Prada & Jil Sander

Jil Sander and Prada designed two of the most popular collections of this season, which made their contribution to the Arnhem Mode Biënnale extra special. Prada brought pieces of their actual Milan catwalk to Arnhem and Jil Sander’s collection can be looked at through several magnifying lenses.

Prada

Jil Sander

Check out the gallery below:

Trend Report SS2011: Walk The Line

Next to the blue and white navy-like stripes there is another world of stripes we just need to discuss. Those stripes are bold, wide and come in many different shades.

Prada’s stripes definitely are the most recognizable ones (also since they’re copied all over the world by high street fashion houses). Blue, pink, green, orange; the brighter, the better.

Karl Lagerfeld chose diagonal stripes for fendi and at Jil Sander they were extremely wide and vertical. Watanabe’s models looked like they’d just escaped from prison and Marc Jacobs gave his striped dresses a vintage feeling due to his choice of color.

We saw so many stripes on the runway, it seems there’s no way you can do without them this summer. And our advice, if you go for some stripes is: don’t hold back! Let them stand out & just have fun with it.

 

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2011/201

Mixing a swim cap with gigantic glasses and a double breasted black dress can be very sexy. At least, according to Miuccia Prada, who sent this outfit out on the runway as her first look.

The Italian designer again pushed the boundaries with her new winter collection. She wanted to make glamorous and sexy materials more innocent and fresh’, she told WWD. This resulted in a fun collection with an cartoon effect. No bananas and monkeys this time, but 60’s inspired dresses with eye-catching buttons. Some designs (with different fields in several shades) even felt very Mondrian-ish.

Miuccia’s models all wore gloves and held a snakeskin Prada bag in their right arm. Towards the end their dresses changed from nude and furry to bright and shiny. So if your Prada dress, gloves or bags don’t get enough attention; just try out the swim hats; you’ll look just perfect. 😉

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2011

Designers are looking for new proportions and silhouettes, besides the HD-color, that’s the main message in Milan right now. Prada is trying to change the slim silhouette now for a few seasons, but it is difficult in a world where men hate to change the fit of their suit. They prefer to stick to what they have. But what Prada suggested yesterday didn’t seem strange at all: the rounded shoulderline, the wider fit and the black mixed with lurex in jewelcolors looked nice. However, it were the tracksuits and shiny, synthetic fabrics that made me look away.

In a time where men are desperately looking for a new dresscode this was not a serious alternative. It was tacky and a bit cheap. But, as with all those Prada-collections which irritate at first sight, the fashion-oracle probably knows something we all don’t understand yet. Time will tell.

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2011

After seasons full of nudes and black & white all designers are opting for vivid, strong colors now. Miuccia Prada too joint the big color-blocking trend. She chose bright orange, green and blue as the main shades of her surprising show.

Their was no sign left of her popular feminine Mad Men clothes, Miuccia Prada went in, yet again, a whole new direction.

The first few models she sent out on the runway wore plain dresses in just one color. They carried bags and pieces of bright colored fur stoles in their hands and wore the craziest goggle-like glasses. The ones without glasses had silver-colored eyeshadow on and all of them had this thirties-inspired waved hairstyle (only this time with two buns at the back).

The models’ shoes (brogues and wedges in three different colored layers) were as eye-catching as the glasses and sure were the hype of the evening.

But there was much more… Big bold stripes appeared after several looks. They were there on the clothes, bags and fur stoles. Later they were even combined with other prints, like a banana-print, which in fact looked Ba-na-nas too. Also Dutch model Daphne Groeneveld appeared on the runway in a dress with the print of an African woman with a pineapple on her head. And to continue the South America spirit Mexican hats were introduced.

Miuccia said she wanted to do something between minimal and Baroque, something fun, bold and brave. She herself called it exaggerated simplicity, but we would rather just call it exaggerated. Yet no matter how over the top it all might have looked, there will definitely be some trends in this collection, which are going to be picked up all over the world. That’s just how it works with Prada.

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