PRADA SPRING/SUMMER – LOVE OR NO?

Did you see the latest Prada campagin? Shot by Steven Meisel featuring young who’s who models like Arizona Muse, and yes that’s a name.

This collection may have hit all of this season’s trends spot on –

1. bright bold colours, check!

2. hello 70s vibe, check!

3. kookoo shaped/ colour accessories, check!

4. prints on prints, check!

but what was Miuccia Prada thinking? I am sure the rest of Prada clothing fanatics will agree with me when i say that prada has been a perennial cult favourite because it epitomises sleek sophistication, for how the clothes were always subtly opulent. look at the past seasons, spring/summer 2008 etheral qualities

    

or by far my favourites, spring summer 2010’s lolita meets deconstructed silk shifts and spring summer 2009 with the delish faux fabric snakeprint and leather crumpled ribbons and fabrics.

It is very hard to comprehend how the very same person/brand that gave us clothes and accessories with that carefully careless EN DESHABILLE quality would conceive of the following spring summer 2011 lookbook.

the ad campaign was almost painful to look at. i remember my shock flipping through pages of my glossy vogue and haper’s bazaar to see the ghastly display of colours and furs glaring back at me from the minimalist PRADA in the background. i could cry! How Miuccia Prada could think that plastering all of this season’s trends (loud bright colours, prints on prints, bright bold loud accessories STRIPED FURS) all in one outfit is ‘fashion’ is truly beyond me.

If you break the outfits down, you could actually see some worthy elements could maybe be fashion inspiration. the striped dyed fur stoles for instance, would have looked spectacular against a colour blocked outfit. The checkered chunky heeled shoes would have been ultra chic when worn with a muted coloured shift dress. even the banana print blouses would have rocked with jewelled toned cigarette pants and flats. on some levels, i could identify with her vision when creating this collection, even applaud her many references to fashion inspirations like josephine baker’s 20s 30s follies, but still, the genius of this spring summer prada look was lost on me.

i guess the real reason for my instant rejection of the colours and the flamboyance was deeply rooted in my love of prada. i have loved prada for the delicate balance of decadence and subtle flamboyance. the feeling that in the deceptive simplicity of the clothes and bags was a restrained exhibitionist streak, circa 2009 boxy crumpled blazers and knee length skirt suit paired with lingerie crumpled bra tops.

for the last few collections i had pored over every picture, eyes drinking in the ingenious design and colours, laughing when i realised this or that detail i’d not noticed before. this collection left none of fun for me to discover, it was all there in the magazine pages, glaring in my face. i couldnt wait to turn the page.

give us Prada back. I cant wait for spring summer 2011 to be over.