FASHION NOW
Welcome to the new season, where all-out joy and a global outlook are set to change everything
Each season, a designer typically chooses a “face”. A woman who encapsulates everything they’re trying to convey through their designs, embodies their vision and generally makes you feel bad about that last doughnut (don’t). For its AW17-18 womenswear campaign, Prada chose Jessica Chastain. With Hollywood buzz and a coveted spot as one of 2017’s highest-paid actresses, she was a natural choice.
But it wasn’t just her celebrity status that nabbed Chastain the role. Since when did Miuccia Prada ever bow to popular opinion? Rather, it was the multidimensional woman she represents. From speaking out on the “disturbing” representation of women on film (Chastain was a vocal member of the Cannes Film Festival jury earlier this year) to fighting to protect women’s reproductive rights, the 40-year-old is using her platform to create change. It’s a multiplicity Prada captured in a series of intimate campaign images of the star segueing between the brand’s belted coats and beaded dresses. “As a great actress, Chastain’s talent lies in the fact she can constantly reinvent herself anew, while also maintaining her own distinct self,” read the press notes.
With years of experience under her embroidered leather belt, both as a woman and a designer, Miuccia knows it’s not only about the dress, but the person wearing it. And sometimes that person feels like wearing bold patterned knitwear with a feathered bonnet, yeti boots and a cocktail jewel. And she should. Because this is fashion right now: a full-on, hit-youbetween-the-eyes experience of textures, shapes, colours and quirky combinations worn any way you like. As the posters on the walls of Prada’s late-’60s/early-’70s college dorm-themed show space declared: “Fashion is about the every day and the every day is the political stage of our freedoms.” Permission to incite a riot from your wardrobe.
The team over at Etro definitely got the memo. Inspired by the same era, the collection was an explosion of rich brocade, leopard print, paisley and highly decorative detail evoking world travels (in a kombi, naturally) and hippie loveins focused on pure, mind-bending pleasure. While at Loewe, an infinitely more 2017 take on the trend saw Jonathan Anderson offer up