Ripping off designs = Diet Prada alert. Being self-referential and recontextualising one’s own past works to create something new? Plain clever – and nobody does it better than Miuccia Prada.
Here, a look at some of the ways we’re seeing a resurrection of her greatest hits and signature styles in Prada’s gothic-themed Fall/Winter 2019 collection.
Before she went all maximalist with prints, Miuccia Prada was a minimalist in the ’90s with a penchant for clean-cut monochrome tailoring. Think of this floral-adorned shirt dress as a Prada foundation piece updated for the now.
F/W ’05 was noted for its reinvention of couture silhouettes that created a bold new take on feminine elegance, and included black tea dresses with digitally printed florals. Deja vu much?
For any woman who’s always wanted one of Prada’s intellectual men’s all-black suits, here’s one of the most desirable adaptations.
Fact: Prada made nylon fashionable – and it keeps on doing so with this hybrid of a vintage-style army jacket and nylon bomber. (Did we add that military dressing is one of Mrs Prada’s lifelong obsessions?)
A throwback to the F/W ’08 collection that made everyone rethink the way pretty, delicate lace ought to be worn: over clothes, not skin.
The Prada uniform (knit sweater + prim skirt + functional shoes – a look that Madame, as well as her boutique staff, continues to wear) given the brand’s signature flourish: unexpected, tactile applique.
A combination of two things that Miuccia Prada has always been fond of: bustiers that celebrate womanly curves, and the grandma/vintage-style wrap.
How can a Prada Fall/Winter collection do without an austere, ’40s style coat?
Off-shoulder, form-fitting and in tailoring fabric, this sensuous number with a thigh-high slit would fit right into the Hitchcock femme fatale-esque F/W ’13 collection.
Text Imran Jalal
