October 2, 2024 |
Miuccia Prada’s Miu Miu does not exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a discourse and for many seasons has been in conversation with a chosen artist. For SS25 that artist is Goshka Macuga who “envisaged” the catwalk setting as a newspaper printing factory, and put on a mise-en-scène movie featuring lovers confronting difficult truths about each other. In an election year, truth is an anxious concept. The Truthless Times newspaper, also produced by the artist and left on every seat, linked to articles about truth, perception and selfhood. Big topics. But anyone looking for an obvious link between the art, set and clothes that came down catwalk might struggle, Mrs Prada acknowledged, “But it always works because we are interested in reality, in today.” If Macuga‘s work reflects anxious times, Prada’s seemed to reach for a simpler state of being.
Little girls’ slips and pinafores, in flimsy cotton and silk were worn with knitted bodices which wrapped around the torso like a scarf snake. They looked like adaptions of school uniforms – a favourite Prada trope – as if the wearer had spent playtime running around and had stripped off a layer to cool down. Gym skirts and bloomers worn with cut-out swimsuits and shrunken track tops added a sports-day touch.
The clothing combinations were deliberately odd, projecting the kind of artlessness that only the very young who live in the moment can possess. Other uniforms crept in with workwear trousers and waitress dresses. Some pieces – a high shine leather coat worn by Hilary Swank and Seventies-style prints (referencing a 2005 collection) served as reminders of what Mrs Prada does best. Willem Dafoe closed the show reprising his starring role in a 2012 Prada menswear show packed full of cinema greats. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Photography courtesy of Miu Miu.
