Miuccia Prada closes Paris Fashion Week with Miu Miu’s ‘Violently Happy’ trousersuits.
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If there’s one important lesson to be learned from the best of the autumn winter 2012 shows it is this: create one strong look, do not deviate from that look, repeat it and repeat it, because in this time starved, trigger-happy-tweeting world, the message must be forceful and the result must be crystal clear.
For a masterclass in this, you need look no further than Miuccia Prada’s Miu Miu, held today in Paris, almost a continuation of its big sister Prada line, held last week in Milan. It was 1960s psychedelia (the swirls of ice blue-white and mirror-dotted eye makeup) and early 1970s Carnaby Street-meets-Tommy Nutter, the Savile Row rebel.
It was a collection almost entirely based on trouser suits that pounded out to Bjork’s Violently Happy. But instead of the strict androgynous tailoring we’ve seen all over Paris – and mostly in black – these were particularly happy girlsuits in block colour, striped, patterned or supple suede.
The overriding silhouette was of a single breasted, strong shouldered jacket that either just skimmed the bottom or ended mid-thigh and worn with belted trousers cropped above the ankle, the better to display the new chunky heeled and buckled shoes. With every coloured suit came a jazzy shirt and tie combination, plus a cravatte – which led to an interesting pile-up of print. A yellow and black chessboard print cravatte, say, with a black and white print shirt and a bronze and brown ruffled kipper tie. As the show progressed, the fabrics became more intensely decorated until the effect was quite dazzling.
Aside for a few belted short skirts which appeared in the middle, worn with heavier caped jackets in shades of mustard and rust, the only trouserless legs on show came at the end with mini pinafore dresses covered in large mirrored discs.
As if to prove what an easy, no-age-limit look this might be to wear, out came Miuccia herself, in a black ponyskin trousersuit, one shoulder embellished with fist sized precious looking stones. And yes, she looked fabulous.
