AnOther – 18 janvier 2017<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, protest is very necessary,\u201d Mrs Prada explained backstage after the A\/W17 show, which advocated for politicisation and normalcy through powerful 70s motifs<\/p>\n
One of the stories often told about Mrs Prada is that, while a student in the 1970s, she was a card-carrying member of the Italian Communist party; rumour has it she would wear Yves Saint Laurent to distribute flyers on marches (she has, on occasion, explained that she found the dress codes prescribed for such proclivities to be tiresome). It is certainly true that Prada earned her degree in political science from the University of Milan during a time in which Italy was defined by student protest and political upheaval, but she is generally reluctant to discuss that period \u2013 after all, as she once told Alexander Fury in Document Journal, \u201cEvery young kid who was vaguely clever was leftist, so it\u2019s not that I was so special\u201d. Nonetheless, for her A\/W17 menswear and womenswear pre-collection, that era\u2019s aesthetic played a clear role in the designs she sent onto the runway: a combination of bookish 70s beatniks and the Red Brigades presented with somewhat sinister undertones. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to do the 70s\u2026 but it came out naturally,\u201d she said backstage. \u201cIt was an important moment for protest, for humanity. Now, protest is very necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s right, of course \u2013 the week following her collection\u2019s debut will see the inauguration of Donald Trump, and then the Women\u2019s March on Washington, an event predicted to be one of America\u2019s largest ever demonstrations. But here, size was not the solution to our current turmoil; instead she explained that \u201cthe main sentiment that I have is going from bigness to small\u201d \u2013 it was a collection rooted in the unsettled normalcy that Prada revels in. Plus, it would be na\u00efve to assume that Mrs Prada would design a collection simply to politicise her audience \u2013 \u201cTo be an opinionist as a rich fashion designer, I think is the worst possible thing to be,\u201d she told Hans Ulrich Obrist in AnOther Magazine back in A\/W08 \u2013 and she has never been prone to channelling monolithic inspiration. In fact, as she herself said about the collection, \u201cmy inspirations are so many and so complex that to summarise them is impossible.\u201d So here, while there were the corduroy suits and berets typical of 70s students and Katie Morosky, there were also sinister leather trenches and scarves tied like nooses, a showspace comprised of pristine formica panelling and institutional leather-clad beds for the audience to sit upon; it made for a disconcerting scene, rather than a socialist utopia. \u201cThe badness was very strong,\u201d she said. \u201cNasty.\u201d And it was \u2013 but, of course, in the best possible way.<\/p>\n
The Cult of Prada<\/p>\n
There are few fashion designers who command the same level of cultish fandom that Mrs Prada achieves; so pronounced is her influence that whatever she sends down her runway visibly ripples throughout the industry. Case in point: last season, we saw her models strapped with plastic buckles and backpacks; this season, hiking ephemera has been visible in abundance on everybody else\u2019s runways. For A\/W17, in lieu of such overt utilitarianism, there was a return to nature: Mrs Prada proclaimed \u201ca desire for reality, humanity and simplicity\u201d. So, there were fur coats and fluffy moccasins, talismanic pendants and cosy jumpers, which, when positioned against the tense clinking overlaid upon classical music, all felt a little bit Manson Family or Father Yod \u2013 strange little sects of supposedly spiritual, liberal ideals that translated into terror. \u201cWe were talking about the stories of the 70s\u2026 and then came the idea of Wendy Carlos and A Clockwork Orange,\u201d explained Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Sanchez, the composer behind the soundtracks for Prada\u2019s shows. \u201cIn the world we live today there is something quite frightening\u2026 beautiful, but terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hypernormalisation<\/p>\n
It would be too easy for Prada\u2019s current sentiment to refer simply to the right-wing bent of contemporary politics. In fact, the liberal left finds itself, presently, in a particularly strange situation, fractured by competing discourses and isolated within digital echo chambers. Six months ago, Prada asked (via Premonitions, the teasing series of short films which the brand debuts via social media ahead of the show itself): \u201cExploring a landscape of extremities, where do we situate the poles?\u201d \u201cWhere to from here, when all of the horizon is in the cloud?\u201d This time, the new series explained that, \u201cThe revolution starts at home,\u201d and \u201cTruth is subjective and necessary\u201d. It seemed more of an existential nod towards the abstract and apparently impotent nature of digital-age revolution than a celebration of its virtues; a shoppable interpretation of Adam Curtis-style philosophising. As that director recently explained in documentary Hypernormalisation, \u201cwe have become lost in a fake world and cannot see the reality outside,\u201d continuing to explain to DazedDigital that \u201cThere\u2019s a whole generation that has retreated from an active engagement with power, who want to change the world\u201d. Here, Mrs Prada seemed to be reminding us of those activists who once determined the personal to be political and sought revolution through action rather than Facebook status; of the importance of authentic, human reality during a time when detachment is bearing particularly frightening consequences.<\/p>\n
Mrs Prada played a particular role in pioneering the wave of normcore that swept through fashion a few years ago; an intensely stylised version of blandness that was provocative in its banality and manifested in Miu Miu anoraks and Prada blazers \u201ctoo perverse to be innocent\u201d. Now, she explained: \u201cI love the idea of corduroy and leather; basically the whole show is done of those two materials. They give a sense of normality.\u201d It was an extension on a theme she has explored before, but where normcore felt unnerving in its sterility, this felt warmly weird.<\/p>\n
There were those cozy knitted jumpers printed with fictionalised artwork that looked like the sort you might find in a hotel lobby \u2013 \u201cwe wanted the perfect idea of no art,\u201d she grinned, \u201cSunday painters\u201d \u2013 and faux-Cubist handbags that were as covetable as they were supposedly meaningless; na\u00efve necklaces made from shells (that again harked back to that cultish 70s aesthetic) and fluffy socks and mohair cardigans (very hygge). Shearling-lined peacoats and cashmere V-necks were the epitome of the luxury workwear that she does better than anyone else, but skirts came with slits that were cut a little too high; suit trousers accessorised with weird ponyskin belts. \u201cThe whole point about the \u2018normcore\u2019 trend is that you\u2019re pretending to be normal,\u201d said Curtis. \u201cCool irony originally had a political analysis that said, \u2018We\u2019re detaching from this and looking at it\u2019. Then it just became \u2018We\u2019re detached\u2019.\u201d Here, Mrs Prada seemed to be deliberately avoiding such a spirit, instead preaching intimacy as the antidote to the alienation and apathy. \u201cEverybody in this world, we\u2019ve all gone too far,\u201d she explained backstage. \u201cWe\u2019re at the point where there\u2019s too much to follow, too much to do. You lose somehow your normal nature.\u201d But, this season, such nature was celebrated in abundance, without detachment or provocative irony. It was a modern-day Love Story \u2013 and, perhaps most importantly, it left its audience desperate for autumn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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