Prada Fall/Winter 2015 Part Uno

Miucca Prada is known for creating elaborate sets at the Via Fogazzaro space where she showcases her Prada collections. These sets very often, serve as a teaser to what is to come. For Fall 2015, Mrs Prada had the venue turned into a series of rooms that mirrored a plush underground cyber vault of some sorts. There was something very industrial and electrifying about it. But when the first model stepped out in a black nylon mac coat, it was clear that there was nothing electronic about this collection despite it being so modern.

It was weird because it felt somewhat ordinary for a Prada collection. There were references to Prada's past here and a lot of it was put together very well. It proposed a new idea of formality that embraced informal elements. For instance, the shirts which were worn with ties were not tucked in and the shoes adorned sporty soles. Despite this, the clothes didn't seem informal at all. There was a great number of double breasted coats and blazers as well as single breasted ones.The collection was very much built around these few looks which Mrs Prada expanded with different shades of a very limited number of mostly dark colours. The womenwear looks which were for the pre-fall collection had a bit more of a design edge going on and in some ways over shadowed the men's looks but maybe this was intentional. 

In the show notes, Mrs Prada said she was investigating the differences and similarities of both genders and what they gain from each other. When viewed in this context, one may be driven to analyse the collection differently but despite this, it was still difficult to comprehend how valuable or not this attempt to the investigation was. 

Mrs Prada is known very well for the intellectual exercises she puts her audiences through and she does this while avoiding the smoke screen of pretentiousness. There were a lot of desirable pieces here that are going to sell well and perhaps that was the point considering the fall in profits last year however, as an investigation into gender relationships, it didn't seem to collate too well. This is the first half of two collections that make up the duology of what this season's theme is. It will be interesting to see what the final chapter of this "experiment" will be when it is shown in February. 

OpxD

photos: style.com