Prada. Milan. Noir or Not?

As a true Prada lover and collector, I immediately recognized snippets and references to Mrs. Prada’s greatest hits as they appeared in different forms and formats down the Milan runway. They’re all in my closet. But I also recognized something else and no one is saying it. Mrs. Prada’s right-hand “woman”, the utterly engaging Manuela Pavesi. You could bump into her anywhere in the world (as I did earlier this year) and she’d be in some combination of any one of these looks. The fur, the lug shoe, the decorative embellishment for day mixed with a check, a belt around anything, the luxury over sized bag in an exotic skin (ch-ching), a dress (and there were many great ones in this grouping) with or without a sweater, and the hair. Clean but “not done”, a drop of grunge, and little to no make-up as in “who cares”. Well we do. But so do both Mrs. P’s because it’s ultimately all about the clothes. So don’t be fooled by the nonchalance. She cares ever so much.

That was the point. This time pulling from the extensive Prada archives and twisting fashion like a Hitchcock mystery: dark, mysterious and noir with an ending completely open to interpretation. At first it all seemed a bit incomprehensible. Mrs. P makes us work towards understanding and then the light bulb goes off. We’ve been saying it for years. We’re obsessed with Prada. Once again, she reveals why we can’t let go.

xo

NJ Goldston, The Brunette