Prada A/W 2014

By the look of the Prada menswear show space, where every inch - including the walls and outside bar - was lined in heavy movers' felt and filled with metal caged bleachers, one might have assumed that Miuccia Prada had heavy fabrics on her mind. But, for next winter, Prada has rejected weight and is instead moving boldly into the cold with nothing more than a whisper of silk or a slip of finely worsted wool. In these featherweight fabrics, her already reed-thin men looked ironed down to an inch of their skinny lives. The silhouettes were rooted in the 1940s but fluffed up with the sassiness of the 1970s. Leisure suits, broken down into four-pocket military jackets, or extra-long suit jackets cut to the knee, were paired with wide-legged pants with skinny jogging stripes. Fluffy coyote fur coats and stoles added a retro air, but Prada brought the suiting, with humour, into the 21st century, with thick rubber soled, polished leather sneakers. Now that the rest of the world had knocked off her shark jaw soles (which debuted a full year ago) her flat, support soles had a geriatric feel to them - something grandpa would probably love. Gramps would have also approved of the coloured scarves, flat and skinny as a silk tie. But what to make of the warrior-like breast plate, sleeveless coats that were cut from fur and wool? It was classic sartorial confusion, deliberate on the designer's part and underscored by live 1920s music that clashed simultaneously with 1980s headbanger rock on the stereo. But somehow, a sense of peace emerged, corralled by a brilliant use of colour. Expertly arranged in artful and unexpected compositions, the palette was absolutely poetic.

Photography: Jason Lloyd Evans