Fall 2017 Menswear: Prada

The pilgrims who travel to the temple of Prada come to witness the revelation of big ideas: eurekas that push fashion

forward. Or an intuitive aesthetic strangeness that immediately makes that

which preceded it seems trifling. That night the big idea was not to be big. Despite the assertive cult dedicated to the exegesis of Miuccia Prada’s output, she knew herself best. Backstage, she said, “My inspirations are so many and so complex that to summarize it is impossible. But I would say that the main sentiment that I had is going from bigness to smallness; from the big deal of the installation – big architecture and construction – the big deal of fashion, the big deal of art, the big deal of everything. And to go opposite – more human, more simple, more real… the desire for reality, humanity, and simpleness.”

Simplicity sandwiched this show. The top was an assertively normcore assembly of buttondown shirt, V-neck sweater, wide-gauge beige corduroy pant, and some suedepaneled round-toed shoes. The last was a boot-cut beige corduroy suit, worn with tie, which featured leather panels on its pockets. In between came exercises in what she said were a conscious exploration of “crudeness” and “low art” – highly researched to be banal watercolor scenes on knitwear; futuristic by-numbers collages on women’s handbags. There was also a search for the analogue. Mrs. Prada half-joked that she had gone into the woods to find the twigs inserted into feathered chains, which along with shells provided naively totemic jewelry accents.

She said the interplay of corduroy and leather encapsulated the collection, and there was for sure plenty of both – shades of brown leather in pants and topcoats and corduroy used in jackets and suits for