Prada’s Road to Somewhere

In these times of sensorial overload, algorithmic and encoded bias, and predictive analytics determined by suits in boardrooms, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons turn to what American cultural critic Susan Sontag termed a ‘flight from interpretation.’
Before the collection, a quick note on the primal notion: in circa 300 BCE, Greek philosopher Plato introduced the example of a pre-textual person, unaware of what exists outside of the cave: their hermetic environment. What I term the ‘trog-look’ could be seen as an allegory for the cave, with individuals wearing raw fur hides around the collars of coats, a gilet, and a Swedish parka, or pelts sewn into vests. All these tropes were identified in Prada’s Fall/Winter collection, alongside bowler bags (a bag style debuted in the women's Spring/Summer 2000), which had just the right amount of worn-in-ness. There were also leather and suede three-button suits (one was patchworked in emerald, roan, and umber), brushed wool overcoats, floral hooded and fur-trimmed bibs in '60's prints, the same prints also covering ankle boots. While we cannot retrieve the innocence of the primal, we can marvel at the multiplicity of identities adopted and the blend of styles drawn from different eras—something a purist might deem implausible.
Prada’s choice of dress seemed driven by unconscious motivations or immediate senses, certainly divorced from market diktats, chronology, or algorithms. There was a deliberately shrunken T-shirt in a 1960s floral (with domestic notes); a low-slung bootleg-cut distressed or ‘dirty’ denim jean; striped pyjama pants with scuffed Western boots; Loden and Crombie coats that looked as if they were found in a HUMANA; a bum-freezer jacket with a Peter Pan collar in fur; and insipid plaid-check car coats and shirts that appeared untranslatable. The inclusion of totemic amulets, such as those on boots and the knitted shirt that opened the show, recalls the early work of South-westerner Jackson Pollock and a similar symbology in the work of fellow Abstract Expressionist Adolph Gottlieb. While these act as loose bearings upon which we can plot vague intentions, any temptation at interpretation should be resisted. We should remain descriptive, not prescriptive, as Sontag would’ve suggested.
Sure, some looks could be interpretations of defining filmic moments (something Prada's press terms "universal memories"), such as the now-mythic shearling coat worn by Ryan O'Neal as the old-moneyed Oliver Barrett IV in Erich Segal's Love Story (1970). A less over-sentimental example could be Dennis Hopper’s tasselled leather-jacketed outsider, Billy, in Easy Rider (1969), his self-directed road movie. Elsewhere, some looks—such as prom tuxedos, corsages, powdery blues, and satin—give slight visual reference to the Midwest and Vincent Gallo's Buffalo, New York, in Buffalo '66 (1998). A reluctance of both Prada and Simons to work in pure mimesis (both in their own brands and together) means that the house of Prada can operate with sensuous immediacy, offering many interpretations, therefore multiple viewpoints.
While the 58 looks presented jam-up cultures, times, and styles, they reveal a visual culture careening off course at speeds ranging from 85 mph to 110 mph. Prada defies any chance of being manageable, conformable, or easily understood—precisely what we need at this moment.
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