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Prada: Less Is More
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
Milan, June 26, 2001/ FWD/ --- Miuccia Prada kept it simple in the Prada men's collection presented Wednesday
in Paris, in a telling example of why less is sometimes more.
Her collections are increasingly a meditation on how the thoughtful, civilized man should dress rather
than a fantasy about guys looking great partying in uncharted parts of the planet - the latter idea, far
too many designers in Milan this season are showing.
Her big idea for Prada spring-summer 2002 was mixing and matching a series of retro-futurist microprints
that Asian fabric mills will no doubt be copying within the next 24 hours.
Miuccia kept her silhouette understated with peg leg pants and shortish two-button jackets in fine wools
and Prada's own inimitable signature material, which is basically nylon gabardine. But she jazzed up the
look with her fresh technical prints, using them on shirtings, pants, jackets, cuffs, collars and even belts.
The top line shown today featured elongated silk boxers worn (fairly improbably)
with paisley shirts, trim knits and black socks and shoes. One model even exited with a cashmere cardigan
tucked into calico shorts. Has everyone in Milan forgotten that one of the great jokes about former British
Prime Minister John Major - repeated incessantly to his cost - was that he wore his shirt inside his underwear?
As ever at a Prada show, a great deal of attention was focused on the footwear, and here Miuccia came up with
trumps. Her standouts included wonderful elongated brogues with bulky buckles on the side and distressed,
waxy Chelsea boots that once again will be widely imitated, but which nobody will do half as well as Prada.
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