Vaga Bond Girls

by Cwe | Feb 27, 2016 | Creative Process, Fashion

Prada goes vagabonding. “It’s such a difficult period; we don’t know who we are or who we want to be.” This was Miuccia Prada, backstage, trying to explain herself after a tour de force of a collection, while being divebombed by well-wishers and journalists trawling for a crumb of enlightenment like so many starving sea gulls: Give us depth, or give us damask.

She did both. For while Mrs. Prada was talking generally, about the messy state of things and female identity, from power players to protesters and the current (non)unified state of Europe, she could also have been referring to the fashion world and its current debate (and growing divisions) over whether the whole system needs to change. Whether clothes should be sold as soon as they are shown (a growing impulse in New York and London), or whether things are fine just as they are (the position of many in Milan and Paris — except that Prada itself is offering two bags from the runway for immediate sale online and in select stores).

Mrs. Prada didn’t have an answer, but her show suggested a place to start: Consider how we got here. “It’s a collage of a woman,” she said. “All the parts of her, good and bad.”

That meant barely laced corsets over tough military greatcoats and fur-trimmed Prince of Wales check capes twinned with argyle tights; sailor semiology in the form of hats and anchors; and shirts and dresses and skirts printed with work commissioned from the artist Christophe Chemin. Mr. Chemin also collaborated with Prada on its men’s show last month, a clear antecedent, as is increasingly true in many collections from Gucci to Burberry. Here, he created a cycle of the seasons inspired by the French Revolutionary calendar, in which each month was named for a woman, according to the brand’s collection notes.

“Every piece says something,” Mrs. Prada said, be it about sex or strength or travel or heritage. They added up to a historical narrative, complete with some strange and awkward moments — where did the trousers go? “We couldn’t make them work,” Mrs. Prada said, “so we just took them out” — pieced together through the aesthetic perspective of a different lens.

Think of it as the examined wardrobe. It wasn’t always comfortable (neither, in hindsight, are all our choices), but it was convincing.

Vanessa Friedman The New York Times