The Prada space at Via Fogazzaro always lends clues as to the brand’s collection to be shown there: witness the latest, for winter 2017. A series of wooden dividers chopped up the cavernous space into warrens of catwalk: throughout, leatherette-wrapped divans and double-beds punctuated the walls, guests invited to squish together atop the duvets to watch the show. How… intimate. That was exactly the thinking behind the collection – a new focus on intimacy, on the interpersonal. “Modest” and “domestic” were words used to describe the set – they were also applicable to the clothes on show, with their tactile surfaces of suede and corduroy and odd fuzzy belts, their subtle palette of browns and camels, and their simple silhouettes. Backstage, Miuccia Prada talked about going from big to small – which, presumably, was why she pulled her audience in close and gave us all a handwritten invite. Rather than an overblown fashion specular, this was about fashion as a one-on-one experience, about getting not only up-close to the close, but personal with them too. After all, what’s more intimate than getting inside something… get your mind out of the gutter, we mean a garment. Probably a Prada one. That’s why the clothes all begged to be touched, stroked, caressed, fondled… again, yes, we’re talking about Prada’s trousers and jackets and the selection of womenswear shown alongside. But there was something undeniably sexy, but oddly so, about what Miuccia Prada showed for winter. It’s intriguing. and enticing. And it’s making us want to buy it – all of it. We’re about to get intimately reacquainted with the interior of our wallet…
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
