July 1, 2019 |
Have you ever been to a fashion show which started with a proper horse race? As an amuse-bouche to her Miu Miu Cruise 2020 show, Miuccia Prada served up jockeys in silks, thundering down the verdant course at the Hippodrome d’Auteuil on their majestic thoroughbreds. The horses were the thrilling warm-up act for Adut Akech Kaia Gerber Fran Summers & Co – thoroughbreds of a high fashion kind. “I always have fun with Miu Miu,” announced Prada, her lavish chocolate diamond drop earrings (which matched her stain coat) danced in her ears as she spoke.
For her Paris Derby, Prada mused on conservative dress codes, ideas of glamour, elegance and high society dress-upmanship. There were gorgeous thirties tea dresses printed with galloping horses, clip-clopping cork platforms and the kind of snappy tailored shorts that wholesome Hollywood starlets wore for their publicity shots in the 1940s. The models walked at dusk on the hottest day of the year and alongside the retro elegance, there was plenty of Prada eccentricity. Hats were worn layered two at a time. Try doing that at Ascot and see what happens. Society dressing never goes away. Now it’s Celine Dion resplendent in the front row in a pink, ruffled taffeta cocktail dress or Latin superstar Bruna Marquezine in bovver boots, granny blouse and tweed mini skirt. As Mrs Prada says, conservative dress codes are fascinating, especially when you subvert them. This is the Miu Miu way, now and forever.
