PRADA: THE COLLECTION

When we look at Prada we see blocks. Square-shaped blocks. Rectangular blocks. A layer of blocks. Everything is blocky. From the cut of the jackets and tops to the panels of colour that adorn them. Everything is also symmetrical. Mrs Prada says blocks are the future. Well, she doesn’t. But she’s thinking it. What she actually says is this: “Simplicity is repetitive and equal.”

COLOUR IN BLOCKS

Or blocks of colour, if you prefer. The whole effect was rather child’s building blocks. In fact, we can imagine Mrs Prada sitting in her kitchen with some of those and making people dressed like this from them. But more muted. Shades of green, blue, navy, maroon and a greyish cream.

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS

More specifically, Richie Tenenbaum, the sweatband-wearing former tennis star and child prodigy who is secretly in love with his sister. There is something of a 1970s tennis player to this. It could just be the sweatbands. The models here wore them, too. Or it could be the vests. They felt sporty. As did the polo shirts. Either way, it can’t be pinpointed, but it can be felt. On a deeper, more spiritual level, we feel it.

BORDERS

There were borders here. Not borders as in the things that divide countries. But in the ring-of-contrasting-colour sense. They were seen round the neckline of a polo shirt, for example. The border, so says Mrs Prada, “is a timeless decoration from Ancient Greece onwards”. These borders were devoid of Greek motifs, though. They were plain. Simple. Stark. And a thousand other adjectives that mean the same thing.

SANDALS. WITH SOCKS

Yes, sandals were worn with socks. Usually when we see a man wearing a sandal and a sock we want to hurl. But that is the magic of Prada. They take something that makes us physically sick and show us the error of our ways. It helps that the socks were not of the greying-white sports variety. And the sandals were not of the pool-slide variety. They were patent. In navy. They had borders. Maroon borders. And cut-outs. On the side. Flashing side sock is the new peep toe.

www.prada.com

by Natalie Dembinska