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Miuccia Prada’s style formula is simple: begin with a great skirt. Her personal uniform is a knee-length skirt, A-line or pleated, most often with a plain sweater and kitten heels. The Prada collection that opened Milan fashion week made a compelling case for her favourite outfit, with a skirt the star of every one of the 63 looks – no dresses, no trousers. It won the room over, so expect to see the personality skirt on a high street near you soon.
For the past six years, Miuccia Prada has shared design duties with Belgian designer Raf Simons, 20 years her junior. The arrangement was considered unusual when announced, but the house of Prada has always had a way of spinning gold from quirky ideas, and it has worked. “She had the idea to focus on skirts this time,” Simons explained before this show. “And I said, why not make it an all-skirt show?”
She prefers skirts to dresses because “they give you room for contrast,” Mrs Prada said. The way I think and feel is complicated, contradictory. If I wear something feminine, I want to wear something masculine too. A dress is all one idea, and we are never just one idea.”
The skirts were mostly A-line and to the knee. A grey wool skirt, severe from the front, flashed a polka-dot violet slip from beneath splits at each side. A lemon skirt was slashed with a ribbon of embroidered black tulle. There were pleated leather skirts, and daisy-printed silk under a layer of sheer gauze. Bare legs and minimal, elegant high heels throughout. Sometimes, the skirts were worn with lace bras, sometimes with a sweater, elsewhere with a shirt. “Whether you want to go to work, or be sexy, or be relaxed with your kids, you can wear the skirt with whatever you choose,” Simons said.
Fashion usually does its talking from the waist up: a slogan T-shirt, a collar and tie, a plunging neckline. Prada’s personality skirt flips the script. “I like my clothes to have ideas,” Mrs Prada explained backstage, “but I don’t want those ideas near my face, because then they get in the way when I am trying to speak. I think of a skirt the way some people think of a T-shirt – a place to express what I think.”
The Prada empire now extends to ownership of one-time rival, Versace. Donatella Versace, who stepped down from her family brand last year, announced on the eve of Milan fashion week that she was launching a new brand. At 71, Versace remains one of the most popular personalities in fashion, with a 12.2 million Instagram following that dwarfs that of most younger designers. She is partnering with California-based Revolve Inc, whose businesses include a joint venture with rapper Cardi B, for an as-yet-unnamed brand that will launch beauty products next year, with fashion further down the line.
There will be no Versace show this Milan fashion week, with new designer Pieter Mulier, newly arrived from Alaïa, preparing for a debut next season instead. Armani, which last week announced the appointment of young designer Dario Vitale to the Emporio Armani brand, positioning him as an eventual successor to the late Giorgio, is also in transition.
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This state of flux is unusual for Milan. Power in Italian fashion has long been concentrated in family-run fashion dynasties, creating a quasi-hereditary-peerage system in which the establishment are deeply invested in the status quo. Paris fashion is where audacious moguls place big bets, London is where young talents experiment, but Milan has favoured stability. But with upheaval at several headline houses – the powerful Fendi matriarchy have also stepped back and appointed Maria Grazia Chiuri to lead their brand – that trend is changing.
