Resort collections are about travelling and quite often about showcasing new designs in extravagant destinations. Miuccia Prada, ever contrary, decided to invite people to her home rather than fly with them to a far away exotic location.
Prada's first resort show was indeed held in the Osservatorio space, above Milan's iconic and historical shopping mall, the 150,695-square foot Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Here Miuccia's grandfather opened his first store in the early 1900s.
The Galleria also features Prada's men's store (opposite the brand's first flagship) and the third Prada owned Marchesi Pastry shop (that opened last September after the original one in via Santa Maria alla Porta and the second store in via Monte Napoleone).
The Osservatorio was acquired by the Fondazione Prada as a more central space for contemporary art and photography exhibitions to complete its headquarters, located in Largo Isarco, south of the city centre.
The location for the event seemed intriguing especially for the view that opened onto the glass dome that tops the Galleria's central octagonal space.
The opening numbers probably made some people wonder if Miuccia had gone down the geometrical path while preserving her penchant for black nylon. The deflated origami black blouses matched with tracksuit bottoms that opened the collection called indeed to mind geometrical constructions à la Junya Watanabe.
As the catwalk progressed, though, trademark Prada archetypes started appearing: the first design that re-shifted the attention towards classic Prada-isms was a silk tunic covered in James Jean's illustrations of rabbits and lilies, a reference to the urban Liberty fairy prints the artist created for Prada's S/S 2008 collection (in the past, visual artist and illustrator Jean created also murals for the Prada Epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles, and developed the illustrated video "Trembled Blossoms" for the house). The illustrations were also replicated on silk pyjamas with flared bottoms and on sporty blouses.
The pyjamas were decorated with marabou feathers, a key decorative element of the S/S 17 collection like the large smartphone-shaped Prada rubbery labels that looked like stickers and that reappered on this runway scattered on skirts and tops.
There was an emphasis on transparencies in the Resort collection that gave some of the models (all in braided hairstyles and at times wearing feathered headdresses in an early Kate Moss-meets-flapper style) a sort of "Alice in decadent Pradaland" look.
Contradictions reigned supreme: soft feathers were juxtaposed to hard sequins and crystals; light and transparent materials such as cigaline contrasted with thick black coats and coatdresses, maybe hoping to recreate the architectural contrasts of the dome with its glass and iron structure; natural and technical fabrics were combined together in looks that pointed at a classic Prada dichotomy – feminine Vs industrial.
A sorbet palette of apricot, violet and pink characterised the see-through and diaphanous tops, skirts and slipdresses, enriched with sequinned formations at the neckline that called to mind the decorative elements of Art Deco ceilings.
More trademark Prada elements included bralettes and high socks with an Art Deco motif mainly matched with velcro strapped sneakers or sandals with intricate thin straps imitating the iron structure of the Galleria dome.
Architectural Art Deco echoes were also clear in certain silhouettes that seemed to reference Erté's studies about the female silhouette and his woman interpreted as a sort of androgynous character in an illustration Erté created for the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1929.
This reference is perfectly understandable in connection with this collection: the new woman of Art Deco time was a dynamic figure representing modern times.
The mood of this collection was actually architecturally modernist and went well with the space where the show took place as the glass-and-iron dome covering the 19th-century arcade played created an interesting contrast with the interior space reinvented by Rem Koolhaas' OMA/AMO.
Yet if Prada's collection was modernist, it wasn't certainly new, but could be interpreted as an edited version of Miuccia's own remixes. It felt indeed that the most striking thing about the collection were not the clothes and accessories, but the location and the links and connections between the clothes and the architecture of the Galleria (look at photographs of the internal structure of the Galleria and then at some of the designs in this collection and it will become clear where the motifs for the crystal/sequinned embellished designs came from).
As a whole Prada Resort 2018 was indeed a journey not through the world, but through the archive and the achetypes of the house, maybe as a way to remind consumers that, if you have something that stands the test of time, you should stick with it rather than running after something extremely new every 3/6 months (which makes us wonder what's the point of creating a Resort collection that heavily relies on previous ones…).
There was a final arty note linked with this presentation: Miuccia Prada walks the fine line between fashion and art and this week the Venice Biennale opens, so guests to her show were also invited to the preview of the exhibition "TV 70 Francesco Vezzoli Guarda la RAI" (TV 70 Francesco Vezzoli watches the Italian national television) at Fondazione Prada in Milan's Largo Isarco.
The event is a celebration of RAI focusing on the importance and the influence of Italy's public broadcasting company in the life of the country. Vezzoli tries to show in this event how certain programmes were ritual collective moments for all Italians who religiously gathered in front of the TV to watch them.
The event includes a lot of extracts from programmes and shows, so Vezzoli acted more like an editor here or a remixer. International visitors passing by may not grasp the final meaning of the event, but Italians who grew up with certain programmes will certainly feel nostalgic while watching clips and extracts incorporated in the exhibition (Mina and Raffaella Carrà reign supreme here, and there's glimpses of Cicciolina as well, but shame no Vittoria Ottolenghi and her "Maratona d'estate", a programme that introduced millions of Italian to the art of classical ballet).
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