Where to start? When one get's ready to recount in their mind what EXACTLY it was that they saw from a Prada Show, That becomes the absolute most ESSENTIAL Question to ask. Because, Fraught with so many Layers of Context and SUBTEXT, A Prada show can be a Beautifully Quizzical and Confusing thing. Spring 2015 was no less Labyrinthine than any other. It may have been, Slightly less elusive than most, but there was still a lot to take in and digest before one could Zero in on just what the show meant to them, and simply meant, In General.
Miuccia Prada herself is no help, really at all. She is as Mysteriously moved by the whims of the Fashion Gods as any of her viewers and is in no Way, Shape or Form able to decipher why it is that she does what she does. Her Intellect gives her an idea, and from then it's off to whatever shores that idea projects her. Her Intellect and Instinct are helplessly melded into one Unified force of Creation, that to Truly delve into that great Fathomless well, would be Far too Dangerous an Endeavour perhaps even for Signora Prada herself!
What that leaves the onlooker with is a Dizzying, Vertiginous sense of Mania, But of a Delicious and Exquisite, Rarefied sort. At first blush, Prada's Spring 2015 Essay was catching that 70's vibe that's been running through town like an Enraged Bull in the Streets of Pamplona, All that Topstitching, The Midi Lengths, The cut of the coats... all signs pointed to another 70's rehash... but even from the very outset, this Idee Fixe never truly seemed solidified as in... this is the Path, this is the Way. Prada Unhinged that theorem from pretty much Exit No. 2! Enter in the Fraying and Sheerness and then The Rococo Swirls and Ragged inserts and Raw hems... as if Prada was deconstructing her own Ideal.
And then the Mania began to creep in, things Unhinged themselves and Deconstructed and Reconstructed themselves with Bits and Strips and pieces of This, That and Incongruous others... Lavish Brocaded Coupe-Fils that from afar looked like Dark Denim, Saddle Leather Strips inset in the seams as if to hold the Precious Materials and the Humble ones together, Fused in Unholy Matrimony forever. Further more unhinging... the Pieces became more Assemblage, uneven or angular pieces of Exquisite fabrics, Like remnants from fully designed pieces that had fallen apart or were cut apart, stitched together, Frankestein-like, to recombine into a altogether New piece,
By the time the show was nearing it's end, Prada had Scoured the whole House for every bit of Fabric she could find and cobbled them together into the most Outlandishly, Insanely Inspired pieces yet, A coat that looked like it was made up of a score of old Foulards or Men's Ties, tops and skirts that looked as if the Upholstery from Grandmamma's Bedroom had been ripped from Chairs, Couches, Settees, ANYTHING! Those Natural Linen Napkins and Drapes, Now pieced into Anonymous looking, yet anything but, dresses with Necklines of Gaudily Embroidered fabrics from perhaps a moth eaten Coat from the 20's....
And then it all came together and made a Mad, if not more importantly, Mad MAX, Kind of sense... The Desolate Purple sands, the Ghosts of other garments now reconfigured in a Madcap, Slapdash, Utterly Couture manner... as if our Prada Heroine was in a Vast Wasteland and was Making her Unhinged, Disheveled Trousseau from the Pieces Ancienne of lives lived long ago. She was an Elegant Princess in a Land of Nothing and No one. But FUCK, if she wasn't going to look Regal in this Desolate Landscape.
Prada said she wanted to "Revive the Beauty of Incredible Fabrics" Yet also said that Beauty, Is an "Impossibility" It is that Contrarian, Stubbornly Arch thinking that makes Miuccia so Brilliant and such an Enigma. She literally, MEANT both things she said, just in her mind the resolution of these Counterpointed ideas is not for her to explain to you, Hell, She probably can't explain it to HER OWN DAMN SELF, But she can design the solution for us. How we deduce what she is presenting to us, is not her affair. She'd be the first, I suspect, to say, Just go with what you feel!
That's All.
Bye4Now!
No comments:
Post a Comment