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Prada’s Guys and Dolls

Is the solution to dressing well next fall wearing similar clothes to your girlfriend, or at least fashion made of the exact same fabrics, finishes and cuts? It may well be if your choice of design label is Prada.

For the first time in her distinguished history, designer Miuccia Prada sent out men and women together on a Milan runway Sunday evening, Jan. 17. Doing so is not unknown in fashion, though when it does happen, designers generally differentiate the looks for the two sexes. Not Signora Prada, who used the same materials, silhouettes and colors for her guys and dolls.

The collection actually recalled many of the ideas Miuccia Prada played with in the '90s – experimenting with '60s prints or using faintly absurd details because they jokingly referenced conventional middle class trends. A series of her coats had thick, ribbed wool collars, the sort a provincial chemist would think was hip on a car coat.

“I can buy any expensive material I want, but am also always attracted to trashy touches," said Prada backstage. "It’s the meeting of the two I like. It offers something new. Never grow old with your customer, I say.”

Though at times deceptively simple in terms of neat short jacket cuts, classical proportions of pants and lapels and understated color palette of khakis and anthracite, this was a path-breaking collection.

Best of all was the sense of brainy beauty. Clever yet cool kids didn't need to flaunt their good looks thanks to the sheer quirky quality of clothes. Languidly cut men’s suits in Sergeant Pepper’s Pop art colors, or lurex-like skinny knits in rose and violet or short chauffeur’s jackets with massive cartoon-like buttons all felt right. And you had to love the bright hued camouflage print trench-coats for the men and women, which will be huge hits and copied all the way from Sydney to Shanghai. Added to that the quirky fabrics, like by a plasticized jersey that was both futurist yet somehow retro, and you got a show hitting lots of high notes.

Her models, most of them new unknowns – were the epitome of well-groomed sexiness: the boys with tussled hair, the girls-next-door with seductive manes thrown behind the ear.

The designer also offered a new men’s shoe, with an extended outer tongue, burnished and as long as any golfer’s that seemed timely given the recent spotlight on global golfing.

Everything from the excellent soundtrack by DJ Frederic Sanchez, built on remixed Nirvana cuts, to the austere Bakelite brown invitation felt right. It helped that the staging was almost flawless, a twisting runway with a series of bleachers for fans, and some great ironic cartoons by architect great Rem Koolhaas, featuring images of surreal “square compasses” or “water matches.”

Before the show started, one of the many long front-row benches in foam suddenly collapsed like a deflated football leaving a few editors sprawling on their backs. But after a certain amount of good-natured jocularity and the Fellini-like arrival of new foam boxes the delayed show finally began, before finishing with the Milan season’s biggest cheer.

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