Miuccia Prada, Feminist

Miuccia Prada has done again what she did three years ago for Spring 2010. This show wasn't obviously spectacular, revolutionary or jaw-dropping. Certainly not in comparison to Prada's previous collections. And so people were disappointed. I think many people (regular internet people, not critics) were disappointed with this showing exactly because it wasn't, as Hamish Bowles puts it, "the radical season changer that Miuccia so often serves us". But the problem with holding such high expectations, of always expecting these radical season changers, is that quieter instances of genius are not appreciated. There is the sentiment 'if it's not big, it's not good', and for some this collection was a bit of a let down. But it really shouldn't be!

This collection was, in my opinion, fantastic. Let me list the reasons why:

1. It felt like Prada was getting out some of her feminist energy. It was there in that dichotomy between girlish sweetness and, to paraphrase Prada, a toughness and seriousness. To be precise she said that the collection's folding resulted from her wanting it to be tough, although I have no idea how folding is inherently tough or serious. But let's not get caught up in the details! Importantly I think that what really defines the current wave, or new generation of feminists (that I think can safely be said to be symbolically helmed by Tavi Gevinson) is the co-existence of stereotypical, traditional notions of girlishness (such as dressing up to look good) with feminist ideals. So here I am projecting that Prada has given us the modern feminist - tough, serious, self-possessed, and covered with pink, flowers, and short skirts.

2. In a kind of carry on from my last point, I could imagine Kathleen Hanna rocking everything (and there were total Courtney Love vibes)

3. Jessica Stam.

4. Guinevere van Seenus.

5. That amazing folding, which was also seen at Christopher Kane! Thanks to Hamish Bowles' review I've learnt how this folding also relates to this "new feminist" dichotomy. Prada talked about "the struggles women have between toughness and softness, the rigor followed by delicacy, and the poetic part of women", and this is reflected in the folding of the Japanese kimono, which is about "tough rigor, the delicacy after, and the folding". Hmmm, "tough rigor", maybe that's how folding is tough and serious.

6. Ribbed underwear, and coats in summer. Nothing more to add.

So overall, I felt the Prada spirit very strongly here, with all those wonderful tensions between femininity and feminism, and all those wonderfully uncomfortable details (like ribbed underwear). Everyone came around to Spring 2010 eventually (myself included), and the same slow-building appreciation may happen here again.

all images from vogue.com

Miu Miu S/S'12 (Hate to Love #3)

I must admit I was a bit grumpy at Miuccia Prada when she proudly announced that the Miu Miu Spring/Summer 2012 collection was designed and created in only 15 days. She said it like it was some great thing, however I wanted to yell (did yell, at my computer) "this isn't Project Runway people!". The statement bothered me because I felt like it cheapened the whole process of designing - it's not a race after all. There are already too many collections in a year and there is enough of a rush, enough of a focus on the 'new', without Prada stepping it up a notch.
Because of this I couldn't look at the collection without thinking about its rapid creation, and in a misinformed act of protest I just dismissed it. Only now, five months after the show was presented, has my head cleared and I can assess it without an angry bias. And with this distance, I have realised it is TOTALLY AWESOME.

I've cropped the images in this way deliberately because the hair, make-up and accessories, while maybe not being objectively ugly, certainly distract a huge amount from the clothes (please notice the diplomacy in my wording, it takes a lot of self-control).

I can pin the excellence of this collection down to a few distinct elements. The first is the upper body wrapping that featured throughout. They've been generally described as stoles, but they depart quite a bit from the traditional night-at-the-opera staple. Nevertheless, for whatever reason having your chest constricted is very elegant, as Ashley Olsen seems to have already figured out.

Another great element of the collection was the off-the-shoulder looks. To be honest they don't seem very practical, but they were what helped push this collection off-kilter for me, and that is always a good thing.

The a-line shape has been a bit of a trend for a while now, but Prada, in the way that only Prada can, completely transformed the silhouette by its own exaggeration, via not just skirts but cape-like coats too. And I have no idea how Prada chooses her colour palette for a collection, but I'd love to be a fly-on-the-wall for that process because none of the colours for this show made much sense, yet they all worked amazingly together. I can't help stealing the description of colours from Nicole Phelps: "oxblood, cherry red, cerulean blue".

The patchwork assembly of graphic textiles was also a stroke of inspiration paired against unlikely colours such as metallic lilac (look up). The women of the show were likened to "snarky" (thanks Cathy Horyn) Hitchcock-esque anti-heroines, but I think those interpretations were due solely to the twisted hair, makeup and shoes. When left alone the vaguely folk-ish collection of prints, along with the metallics and crazy shapes and details, speak more for themselves than for some hypothetical character.

Original images from vogue.com