MANIFESTO

#61

ART NOW

“Fashion is relevant"

2022.10.05

Text by Guia Ortolani

Fashion is a means of translating a reaction to reality into material form. It reflects actuality and speaks of function and utility. Delicate complexities meet, in a succession of the brand’s key pieces re-purposed in surprising declinations.

The opening look tells and encapsulates Miuccia Prada’s intense reflection on current events, in a layering of ordinary garments carrying complexity, worn by the brand’s muse Esther McGregor. The creative director explains that fashion has a use and a purpose, both concrete, to dress the body, and to express a broader feeling, a universal, shared emotion. Thus, the collection appears to be concrete, immediate, but at the same time profound.

The new utilitarian maxi pockets expressing practicality are everywhere, declined in various fabrics, applied to different pieces, contrasting with the increasingly mini crop tops. Complexity is expressed through the layering of cotton, silk and cashmere in muted, neutral colors, or tricot nylon in brighter shades.

The now already iconic Miu Miu Set, crop top and mini skirt, is repurposed in different versions, as in the case of a band with a plastic clip-on buckle, which seems to come straight from technical performance wear. Still in line with the two previous seasons, with the impeccable styling by Lotta Volkova, classic garments such as tailored jackets, coats, shirts, sweaters re-emerge; on this occasion through different processing, realizations in leather or washed, worn denim, which disrupt their reality.

The brand’s key pieces follow one another between transparencies, overlapping layers, embroidery and color, raw cuts, miniskirts, leather, where the surface is animated through graphic bands of undergarments and sandals (high and low) that reveal the skin; decoration as a form of non-ostentation, all expressed with new softness. Among the bags, the Miu Wander returns, alternating with classic leather mini bags and maxi pouches to carry under the arm.

Miuccia Prada continues to include some looks for men in her collections, through a cast of heterogeneous genders, defying convention and embracing our new reality.

And in collaboration with artist Shuang Li, the hypostyle of the Palais d’Iéna is transformed by AMO into an unknown dimension of reality, a representation of underwater electronic structures. The background of the show is a sound carpet created by musician Eli Osheyack; conceived as a sequence of lost messages, communicated undelivered and therefore never heard.

“As long as I live I want to be like this, working for the good.”

– Miuccia Prada

Closing the show was singer FKA Twigs, other muses included Ísadóra Barney, Lindsey Wixson, Ethel Cain, Miranda July, Sibyl Buck, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

In an interesting press note, Miu Miu added that the materials used for the fashion show set-up will find new life after the event thanks to the support of La Réserve des arts: a nonprofit association that supports the cultural and creative sector in the development of the circular and solidarity economy, offering services for the collection, recovery and recirculation of all kinds of materials from the various creative activities of the cultural sector.

“I’m very serious but also fun. I am both.”

– Miuccia Prada

PHOTOGRAPHY

LUIGI & IANGO. UNVEILED

2023.09.21

A visionary creative expression characterized by breaking roles and codes, the invention and construction of characters that create a unique visual narrative, but above all reveal a truth that only Luigi & Iango know how to capture.

LOUIS VUITTON

GHESQUIÈRE OCTOBER 2014

2023.09.20

The GO-14 bag, an acronym for Ghesquière October 2014, originated as one of the first creations to mark the designer’s debut at the head of the Louis Vuitton Maison.

BRITISH OUTDOORS

2023.09.19

A classic tale treated with irreverence by the creative inspiration of Daniel Lee, Burberry Summer 24 collection tells all the elements of the brand’s tradition through a fresh, modern lens.

NEWS

On Foot

2023.09.19

The exhibition On Foot, curated by Jonathan Anderson at Offer Waterman Gallery, will bring contemporary artists in dialogue with works of modern British Art and some interventions conceived by the designer himself.

EXHIBITION

MODE ET SPORT. D'UN PODIUM À L'AUTRE

2023.09.18

Ahead of the 2024 Olympics, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris presents Mode et Sport: from September 20th 2023 will be possible to discover the fascinating interconnections between fashion and sport from the ancient world to the present day.