Prada: Onwards

There was a teary wave (from two women not known for those moments) in Milan this February when Anna Wintour hosted and gave a tribute speech to Miuccia Prada praising her profound influence on fashion and the way we dress. Both women, now grandmothers, are 74 and share the vitality, vision, and precision of many half their age. When growing older can seem like a trundle to retirement, both these pioneers show there is a way of doing things otherwise. Both explore beneath and above the surface to excavate the psyche of now.

That drive, that sense of experiment and guts is what makes the work of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons so compelling – nothing is quite what you expected with twists, juxtapositions and propositions that again and again make you think differently about the language of dress and a way of being.

Liberation is one such factor in Prada’s ongoing exploration of style. And for spring, that is writ large in eyelet embellished fringe skirts (paired with barn jackets) that collided farm hand garms with flapper girl charms and fragment shift dresses cut in silk gazar with whispery back bows that fluttered like pixie wings. High rise shorts met with floral shirts, belted jackets; motif sheer skirts with distressed studded and embroidered hard rock leathers that told the tale of life worth telling tales about. Just like the gargoyle clasps that adorned puckered fabric bags that were first designed by Miuccia Prada’s grandfather in 1913. The lessons of history count for a lot when facing obstacles. The shoe that speaks volumes is a retro stiletto emblazoned with a firework burst of rhinestones. When life seems to be serving lemons – don those and dance.