For decades runway shows embodied the glamorous spectacle behind the fashion industry with lavish sets and choreographies that often ended up overshadowing the clothes. In the last few years, in between financial restrictions, changes in art direction and in general taste, many fashion houses and labels refocused on the clothes. Yet, in many ways, even leaving behind the grandeur and the glamour, fashion still remains a sort of theatrical stage on which designers introduce season after season new characters. At least that's what Miuccia Prada seemed to be telling people last night.
As usual Miuccia disseminated along the way precise cues to help interpreting Prada's men's A/W and women's Pre-Fall collections - the first one being the theatrical set by AMO. People were seated along the runway platform covered in insulation-felt or inside pits and pockets built inside the stage-like runway. One of such pits also contained woodwind concert band L'Usignolo, another key element. The live band performed indeed a puzzling mix of music, referencing Pina Bausch's shows, Kurt Weill, Nina Hagen and Rammstein's "Führe mich" as heard in Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac.
While walking the runway models stopped every now and then on raised podiums that referenced theatrical stages and experimental theatre. Leaving behind prints, Miuccia opted for a monochromatic approach in which oppressive shades (think interior design pieces from the '70s and you get an idea...) prevailed.
The formal mood of suits in which violet, red, cinamon and military green combined together, was broken by details such as skinny scarves carelessly tossed over the shoulder, thick-soled trainers and rounded lapels.
The felt runway and the quilted vests covered in straps that caged the body of the male models may have actually been references to Joseph Beuys rather than to protective gear. The German artist was indeed known for employing in his work felt, fur and rayon fibres and for wearing a fur coat that made him look a bit like a pimp.
Miuccia invoked introspection, introversion and perversion, though such moods were maybe more evident in the languid leather dresses, chiffon blouses, ample fur coats and fluffy boas for the women's Pre-Fall collection worn by extremely thin models who emphasised the elongated silhouette.
There was a sense of performance also in the women's Pre-Fall collection: the one shoulder tops (matched with chiffon shirts) and woollen skirts in pale pink and grey were borrowed from the training garments of ballet dancers. Such references with the mix of oompah band, cabaret music and metal infused a degree of decade(a)nce in the collection.
These references to music and dance as performance actually made you think about Takeji Hirakawa, one of Japan's leading fashion critics who in the late '90s coined the phrase "Fashion DJ" to define contemporary fashion designers considered more as merchandisers than as proper tailors and dressmakers.
The schizoid selection of fractured and disjointed music in the background seemed to hint at Miuccia the fashion DJ and merchandiser in a perfect way: what we saw on the runway yesterday wasn't indeed anything that we hadn't seen on the pages of Italian Vogue in 1973.
Despite the magnificently eloquent words employed by some fashion critics to describe Prada's collections, they usually display less research fabric-wise than many other minor collections out there (when was the last time Prada came up with an innovative textile or experimental fabric?). But then again the lack of variation, innovation and experimentation in this collection may be due to Prada being more interested in art projects.
The fashion house recently committed an undisclosed amount of money to restore "The Last Supper" by Giorgio Vasari damaged during the 1966 flood in Florence (Prada has invested further amounts of money into other restoration projects) and Miuccia and her husband are currently working on the opening of a Prada modern art museum in Milan in 2015 (the opening will coincide with the Universal Exhibition opening in Milan...).
Or maybe the lack of experimentation in the collection was caused by the fact that the company was too busy catching up with backdated taxes: just a few days before Milan Fashion Week started, an Italian newspaper reported that prosecutors in Milan had opened a probe into tax evasion involving designer Miuccia Prada, her husband and Prada chief executive Patrizio Bertelli and their accountant Marco Salomoni. The probe may be for possible undeclared or false tax claims, even though spokespersons for the company denied any wrongdoing highlighting how less than a month ago Prada Holding agreed to relocate companies in the Netherlands and Luxembourg to Italy and pay backdated tax (€470million) following negotiations with Italian fiscal authorities (the company transferred the seat of the label to holding companies abroad in the '90s to avoid paying taxes in a case that sounds similar to Dolce & Gabbana's, but Bertelli and Prada opted for a voluntary regulation of their position as part of an alleged settlement).
Whatever the reason, on the introspective decadence theme Miuccia may be right, it is definitely a trend: yesterday night Sorrentino also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film with La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), a movie that should be interpreted as a metaphor for Italian decadence.
Will we see more decadence on the runway? Probably yes: according to rumours we may understand things a bit better with Prada's women's collection in February that - some say - may feature also men's looks and will have to be interpreted as the second part of this mini-theatrical show that started last night.
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