Mood board: Prada kicked off exactly where it left last season: at a liberal arts university in the 1970s swelling on the verge uprising. Rem Koolhaas’ AMO splattered the grey walls with all manner of political posters, with the audience sat atop cosy fur-lined beds with memorabilia-strewn headboards, transforming Prada’s haunting cement space into a co-ed dorm room. Against this backdrop, Prada spun deep into the seventies: models kept warm with nothing but a knitted bralette and chunky wool scarf, as well as excellent, coloured leather knee boots with sensible heels. But then we took a sharp turn with fresh knitwear that wrapped the models up in layers of woolly winter warmth, before landing somewhere in the realm of rockabilly cuts with the delicacy of 1920s chandelier beading.
Best in show: The knitwear portion of this show was stellar. Here, Prada treated mohair like duchesse satin, cutting it boldly across 1950s flounced cocktail dresses and embroidering the heck out of it with contrast colour beading and whisper weight feathers. How something so retro could look so fresh in its colour-blocked visage was as wonderfully vexing as the Eskimo fur ball hats made from floating pastel ostrich feathers that encased the models.
Finishing touches: As always, the extras dazzled; but this season they were particularly furry, woolly and warm. In addition to the ostrich feather Eskimo hats, curly lambswool handbags in bright colours were slung around the waist, while Eskimo boots in multi-coloured patch works of corkscrew fur gave new meaning to Moon Boots.
