Two disparate worlds collided in Miuccia Prada’s Spring 2013 collection, the poetic, feminine world of a Japanese geisha contrasted by the toughness of every modern day woman.
Today to “dream is forbidden, nostalgia is forbidden, to be too sweet is not good. Everything we used to feel historically, now you can’t enjoy. The clothes are the expression of this impossible dream” stated Prada.
The show opened with a short black duchess satin dress with two stenciled, off center daisies worn with geisha-like platform sandals. A black sheared fur, surely an uncommon look for spring was featured in a knee length, balmacaan coat with white fur daisy shaped insets, a box purse and gold leather tabi socks. Prada also offered the opposite extreme in a white sheared fur with red daisies worn over a short white satin skirt and sandals with socks. The models sported bright red lips and messy hair, making them look tough and severe.
Some of the coats were transformed into angular wraps, alluding to a literal Japanese inspiration. Jackets slid around the shoulder much like Judo jackets in duchesse satin decorated with singular flowers that resembled Warhol’s child like daisies. The flowers seemed to provide a sweetness to the austere angular shapes. Prada stated “I tried to mix them together, because this is mainly what women have to deal with in reality. Prada’s collection referenced kimonos with folds and pleats resembling Japanese origami, many of which were paired with geisha wood block platform sandals in varying heights that came in white, pastel pink, black and red.
The Japanese component was an after thought, though it was a theme that helped to reconcile the challenges of being a woman today, the power, sex, artifice and toughness necessary to succeed in today’s world. The dark spirit of the collection seemed to evoked the mixed emotions of yearning for a more innocent era and the inevitable realization that this utopian dream seems out of grasp for most women today.
