As always, Prada wins! It's like somehow they manage to find the best photoshop-pers to work on their lookbook. And they never disappoint.
P.S. Part 2 is coming up soon. I feel bad if the photo spam lags your computer.
At 1.00 am this morning, while half of Singapore was fast asleep, there was me, logged onto twitter, receiving updates from people across the globe who had sacrificed their Sunday afternoon/evening for this one Prada show. Right smacked in the middle of the Prada website was that same familiar black box flashing live video updates of the Prada show that was simultaneously happening just as I existed on this world. The only difference between this time and the last Prada show that the livestream was actually working, without the disturbances of pauses that never played (that is without clicking the refresh button). In fact, by the help of some miraculous holy beings, the days of being kicked out from your front row seat (in front of your computer) at an Alexander McQueen SS10 show or a Louis Vuitton SS10 show are gone. Here comes technology.......errr....and good old fashion. This time the only thing that could possibly distract you (if your attention span is as short as mine) from that black box at the Prada website is the background of what seems to be a cage surrounded by lighted green fluorescent tubes that looked freakishly eerie for a Spring show. That was the set and the last I logged into the Prada website (which was a minute ago), it was the same background but with white fluorescent tubes instead of the green. Did Miuccia Prada had a sudden change in mind that a green lighting would only make her clothes look slimy and gooey, rather than clean, smart and very very desirable? Yes, this collection was it and it was a revelation. A FUCKING REVELATION.
The set on its own, seemed pretty normal as compared to last season's background of a mind-map of the decade's biggest happenings. But it was still enough for Showstudio (whoever is behind it, Nick Knight?) to make this tweet, "Wonder if Miuccia intended for it to look like the models were wandering through a multistorey carpark?" and Tim Blanks (oh hail the king of style.com's videos) to write ".....could have been an underground car park, or the foundations of a skyscraper, or the bowels of the Battlestar Galactica." I say it was Jesus walking on water, except in this case Jesus were 40 of the same model clones walking on a steel and iron catwalk, wearing the most-amazing mish-mash-of-soles creepers.
I hate to make sense of the concept and the intellectual thoughts that went into a collection, especially of such a beautiful one like this. It's simple to accept that this collection was beautiful because it needed to be beautiful for commercial reasons, but it cannot be said so if it was by one of fashion's great intellectuals. There had to be a message behind any or even every collection, even if it was Resort and Pre-fall or even the bags and the paper-bags.
As the light tubes on the floor flickered and lit up, the collection was well on its way. The show opened with the sharpest of suits, that came in buttons of three and three-pieced. The half-a-dozen or so two-pieced that next came down the runway centered around the colour of blue, or navy to be exact. Uniform, seemed to be the theme for this collection, and well so it was, that the models looked like carbon copies of one another. The only difference between the previous look and the next look was the different hues of navy used. Also, if you noticed well and hard, the silhouettes shifted from tight and snugged suiting to loose-fitting, oversized, baggy t-shirt shapes, sweaters and shorts. And that reminded me of what the uniforms that we wear to school here. Those of the lower grades wore shorts and shirts (due to the terrible heat over here) and those from higher grades wore long pants and the same white shirt.
Uniforms are of a code. Conformity or non-conformity, playing with proportions and breaking the rules, navy blue or denim blue? That was the question you would have to think about. Amidst all of the uniformity, there was that breaking away from the norm. Or you could interpret it as the other way round: amidst all of the different looks, there was that common thread that lines everything together.
The second part of the show still carried the theme of being 'uniform', but the garments were injected with shots of colours, adding a whole new dimension to the meaning of uniformity. It also seemed to suggested a different uniform of sorts, no longer a schoolboy but as quoted from my tweet (ok that sounded weird), "I'm somehow sensing a world cup vibe." After all, it's Italy we're talking about here. Anyway back to the collection, the only variation to the clothes were the colours. Rainbow collared sweaters and loosely cut shirts were to look the same if one were colour-blind. The shapes were limited, but the choice of colours and stripes could go on and on. Basically endless. If there was anything that suggested individuality, it would be the fabric bags that the models were carrying, each embossing a different letter in a varsity college-football-sports lettering (adding on to the sports/world-cup vibe.) Individuality or conformity, that's the question you would have to think about.
I loved the play of proportions, even the awkward ones (because that's how I am). The shoes were also killers; the soles were a mix of soles of wing-tips, espadrilles, trainers, something only the sickest of designers could think about. They were the equivalents of the Armadillos in menswear.
Whatever the concept was, this was one fine collection, even though many were fast to disagree on twitter immediately after the show ended. And did you see the bow that Miuccia Prada did at the end, it was enough to convert any haters (or make them like it a little more.)
David James is not exactly the name you would first associate with Prada campaigns. But the creative director of AnOther and AnOtherMan is the brains behind almost every Prada campaign since 1997, the art direction force behind one of the most visually unforgettable ads of all time. His works, spanning from 1998 to 2010 can be viewed at Out of Print!, an online exhibition that is up until May.
Prada SS 97
Photographer: Glen Luchford Stylist: Alex White
"All of the ideas were inspired by film and the production was nothing short of epic! Glen preferred shooting at either dawn or just before dusk, which meant that we could only do one to two shots a day! There's no digital manipulation in these images. Everything you see was done in-camera."
Prada FW 97
Photographer: Glen Luchford Stylist: Alex White
"The fall/winter campaign continues with the same approach from the previous season in that we used the same model but we developed the narrative, mood and atmosphere. In one of the shots the model is holding a shoe, but it actually looks like a gun."
Prada SS 98
Photographer: Glen Luchford Stylist: Alex White
"It was 1998 and we were thinking about what the next century might look like."
Prada Menswear SS 99
Photographer: Norbert Schoerner Stylist: David Bradshaw
"The portacabins are very modern but impersonal, like a prison or office. The character we created was very nervous and and anxious and we wanted an environment that would emphasize his state of mind."
Prada SS 2000
Photographer: Robert Wyatt Stylist: Lucy Ewing
"We came up with the idea of making the campaign look like a bourgeois television drama but it ended up looking like a stage play."
Prada SS 01
Photographer: Cedric Buchet Stylist: Alister Mackie
This still remains my favourite ad campaign of all time. I remember seeing this campaign some time back when I was flipping through my aunt's old fashion magazine, and was struck by the seemingly awkwardness of the models and the whole image.
"The shots weren't captured at random, they were very carefully set up. We wanted them to appear spontaneous and arbitrary, but the models and the props were actually painstakingly arranged in a very static way. That's why it looks like a frozen world. The compositions took a long time to perfect. It took us four weeks to shoot!"
Prada FW 02
Photographer: Steven Meisel Stylist: Lori Goldstein
"The pictures reference female icons from the history of fashion, film, art and literature."
Prada SS 04
Photographer: Steven Meisel Stylist: David Bradshaw
"The idea of the 'painted' campaign was inspired by the prints and the tie-dyeing used in the collection. When you look at the images closely, you can see that there are brush marks."
Prada SS 05
Photographer: Steven Meisel Stylist: David Bradshaw
"I found a book on exotic birds that became the inspiration for the campaign."
Prada FW 07
Photographer: Steven Meisel Stylist: Prada in-house
"We started off shooting the groups in camera, to work out the compositions, and then we re-shot each model separately and pieced the shot back together."
Prada SS 09
Photographer: Steven Meisel Stylist: Prada in-house
"The reference for this campaign was Greek and Roman sculptural reliefs, the kind you find on pediments on Roman architecture.While we were shooting, Steven asked the models to push and shove each other as they moved across the set."
"We posed the boys as if they were looking at the sculptural forms we had created in the other campaign." This was no doubt my favourite menswear campaign.
Prada Men's Fall 2010/11
Miuccia Prada always knows how to do a good show. From the music soundtrack (which everyone has been raving about) to the backdrop and the floor (one wall was documenting the ten turning point in the last decade-facebook, American Idol), to the clothes, the Prada show is always about the total experience.
There was a whole retro feel to the clothes, I can't pinpoint what exactly, but it could be due to the tab-front pants and the beige suiting paired with a jumper in the first part of the show. The show focused much on the playing of proportions and layering and for the first time, we actually see colour for fall and female models in a men's show (Woohoo, and fist punch. It's about time.). For the first part of the show, there was the usual tailored blazers and suits in beige, camel and navy layered with shrunken knits. Then there were belted cardigans in shades of green and blue, cropped peacoats and jackets with double collars in knits and shearling.
The middle part of the show was the completely opposite of the first. Gone were the camel and in came the colours. Pink, Yellow, Purple, Blue, Red and there were more. Camouflage prints done in a variation of colours (DUH!) and diamond checks also made an appearance on the runway. Surprisingly, it wasn't the least bit tacky. Miuccia Prada certainly knows how to challenge the mind of consumers. The end was something like a lost-and-found part of the beginning. Sumptuous leather coats in what seemed like normal colors of beige (GASP!) provided a full end to the show. Many were just left wanting for more and couldn't wait to see which prints would make it to the production line.
I'm proud to say that I can draw as well as Leonardo Da Vinci and can produce the Mona Lisa with my eyes close. Then, I get back to reality and stare at my sketches which look like the doodlings of a five year old. Wishful thinking.
Marc Bohan for Christian Dior
James Jean for Prada Spring 2008
Christian Lacroix
Giambattista Valli
I somehow do love these sketches. The alien heads are weirdly pretty.
Versace
These are apparently done by illustrators for Versace and not Donatella herself. Nevertheless, they are gorgeous.
Nicolas Ghesquiere
I love how simple these sketches are.
Alber Elbaz for Lanvin
I love how Alber just draws only the eyes and lips. I'm strangely comforted by the fact that I draw like Alber. Hee hee.
Images via TheFashionSpot
