Prada’s army prepares for combat in black
Sometimes all it takes to lift the heart during fashion month is a batch of lovely coats. Tod’s, the luxury Italian leather brand best known for its comfortable loafers, doesn’t really go in for deep subtexts. Send out some cream cashmere sweaters and caramel-coloured leather skirts and jackets and it’s job done.
But there were also some of the most desirable coats in a season of desirable coats. All categories were ticked: the deluxe trench, the Sherlock Holmes checked cape-coat, leopard print slim-cut and Fifties-style duster.
At Bottega Veneta, hopes were high that Daniel Lee, its new British creative director, previously at Phoebe Philo’s Céline, would bring with him some of that Céline magic. Yet for some reason, at this most luxurious and Italian of labels, Lee made his first show a mash-up of exaggeratedly large shoulders and biker-babes, all in oppressive layers of black leather and ribbon weave wool.
Miuccia Prada’s army of models, when they weren’t adorned with giant roses – printed on to pristine white coats or wide prom skirts – looked braced for trouble. Combat touches were everywhere: stormtrooper boots with thick soles, multi-pocketed bags in waterproof nylon, military-style coats, jackets, slim knee-length skirts and capes, in steel-coloured wools or khaki silks, and partnered with gauzy lace pencil skirts or trimmed with silk rosebuds which provided pinpricks of yellow or pink in the black void.