INSIDE THE MIND OF MIUCCIA PRADA

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Miuccia Prada is someone I have respect for as a woman, and as a designer. Mrs Prada has never, not even for a moment, lost her integrity, and seems to put her family and core beliefs about how to live a good, intelligent life before some of the more shallow trappings of success. Prada still lives in the same apartment she raised her two sons in, and at 62, is more interested in evolving as a human being than swishing around being fabulous. I guess the point is, with her rigour, she has no need to put on a front. Her pleasures are internal. As a designer she keeps things interesting by being avant garde, and, well, most designers go off the boil for periods of their career, but not her. Miuccia Prada is never, ever boring.

So it was a rare pleasure on Saturday morning to read an interview with Prada in the Times Magazine by my favourite fashion grande dame Sarah Mower. The interview served to reinforce my thoughts on the woman and renewed my interest in her body of work. Sarah's perceptive piece truly captured the essence of the woman and nailed her approach to work and feelings about success in a warm and moving way that only increased my admiration for both of them. For those who missed the magazine, I've scissored my favourite bits, saves you going through the paywall.

Miuccia Prada (image from landryedux.blogspot.com)

ON BEING "THE EMPRESS OF FASHION"

“I don’t have a sense of it. Thank God!” she laughs. “Otherwise I would not sleep at night. I’ve always obsessed about what I had to do but never looking at myself from the outside. Probably I am highly ambitious – but in the sense that I want to do intelligent things. I want to be good. I never think about the corporation.”

Prada SS12 (image from cat walking.com)

....

ON BEING THE SUBJECT OF THE LATEST MET MUSEUM SHOW

"..I’m curious about what she thinks of being the subject of an exhibition she hasn’t curated. The fashion world is full of control freaks who would have a meltdown at the very thought. But Prada respects the Metropolitan Museum’s independence. “They wanted to analyse the similarities between me and Schiaparelli. I don’t know if there are that many, but anyhow. Neither of us trained as a fashion designer, so we were interested in a wider sense of the world. We both started later in life. But I’m happy that they think she was a fashion revolutionary, and that… er… I am in my time.”

She’s pleased by the scale and importance of the event, clearly, but I don’t think Miuccia Prada gets her satisfaction, or her motivation, from public recognition. What she cares about above anything else is originality. “Some seasons I know what I’m doing, and others I realise as I’m working on the collection. I never know the title of a collection until two days before [a show].”

Elsa and Miuccia (image from Glamazondiaries.com)

                                                                         ....

ON THE "PRADA LOOK"

"But when I ask her to sum it up by answering a dumb-simple question – “What is the Prada look?” – she stops in her tracks. “I don’t have an answer to that,” she says. “It is bad for commerce! But, eh,” she continues, “it is an advantage as well as a disadvantage, because in the end you can change and update. If you fix on one look, and that look goes out of fashion, what do you do?” So that means you just want to lead? She leans forward and practically shouts, “Yes! And that’s since ever!” She said it.

Prada's Bad Taste collection, 1996 (image from styleregistry.livejournal.com)

 ....

ON HER MOTIVATION AS A DESIGNER

Bertelli [her husband] only winkled out her designing ambition when he said they’d have to hire someone else if she refused to do it. As a PhD in political science and an ex-member of the Communist party and active feminist, she was mortified. “I probably had high resistance because of the political situation. It was seriously a nightmare. I was so ashamed,” she sighs. “Obviously, I liked it. But I had serious difficulty finding myself a fashion designer.”
Even when the troubles had died down, the big-shouldered executive suits of Armani and the sexy glitziness of Versace grated on the young feminist’s sensibilities. Her response was to design minimal styles using plain fabrics derived from army, school and maids’ uniforms. “Minimalism was a way of obstructing ideas. I wanted to hide my ideas and my thinking.”

Prada AW09  (image from luxuryblog.org) 

...

ON BEING CLEVER

“I’m happy when I think I do something very clever,” she says as I leave. “It happens once or twice a year, when I feel I’ve done something that makes sense. But actually, I never reflect on what I do, because I’m always busy.” So busy, in fact, that she must be the only female guest who hasn’t planned what to wear to the Met gala – she’ll decide the day before, she says. I don’t know, but I’d like to see her nipping up those museum steps wearing trousers among all those trains."

Prada AW12 (image from catwalking.com)

I'd love to be able to send you to a website full of Prada's latest guipure and gem bombers and swirling car print skirts. Alas, none are to be had on the Internet. However, the Prada site does provide us with jewels, shoes and bags galore...

Go Faster clutch 620E Prada Store

Jewels 1290E Prada Store 

Perfect summer heels 570E Prada Store

THE WEEK IN FASHION: OCTOBER 10th-14th

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

The Week in Fashion is back after its fashion week hiatus - it simply wouldn't have been able to keep up with all the excitement but is now raring to go again, bringing you all you need to know each and every Friday. This week we bring you images from the Frieze Art Fair, gross feet and we congratulate Sarah Mower MBE, recognised for her Services to Fashion. 

SARAH MOWER MBE
While Sarah's journalism career is stellar, it was in fact her contribution to the NEWGEN program and role as Ambassador for Emerging Talent that earned her the MBE.It is worth noting Sarah has transformed the global reputation of London Fashion Week since 2004 when she decided as she says "to become a botherer, and get young talented recognised and supported". Young designers who have been talent-spotted and/or nurtured by Sarah almost always go on to great things. See Christopher Kane, Roksanda Ilincic, Erdem, Louise Gray, Holly Fulton, Meadham Kirchhoff, Jonathan Saunders, Richard Nicoll and so on... Onto the party now, hosted by Sarah and the British Fashion Council.

Sarah Mower MBE with Melanie Rickey (aka FashEd). Sarah is wearing a coat made for her by Christopher Kane straight from the runway of his SS12 show

Sarah's MBE (via @_lulukennedy)  

Sarah and Chris Kane

Sarah receives her MBE from The Queen at Buckingham Palace (Image from  metro.co.uk)

(To see the full set of photographs of the night go here)

Photographs: Christopher James

NOW ONTO FRIEZE ART FAIR...

Leila Lavari from StyleBop.com at Frieze in the Isabel Marant navajo cardigan everybody wants (Image from telegraph.co.uk)

On Wednesday, the Fash Ed and I both visited the Frieze Art Fair at various stages of the day. We came back having enjoyed the art, of course, but also buzzing with the fashion spying opportunities on offer, Rick Owens here, Maison Margiela there, Christopher Kane everywhere. I was very excited to spot Tracey Emin and see some of her latest work. The FashEd attended a brunch hosted by Cos in the Frame section which they sponsor, showcasing the work of up and coming artists. Here a few of her favourite pieces from the exhibit...

We're still getting over Dasha Zhukova's inaugural Garage magazine cover (the Damien Hirst peel away butterfly, lest you forget), and this week the girlfriend of Roman Abramovich has supported her man by wearing a quite beautiful Louis Vuitton outfit for the court battle between her boyfriend and fellow Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. If the case were judged solely on the fashionableness of the participants' ladies then Abramovich would still be in possession of his £3.2 million right now but as it stands there is a load of legal wrangling to be getting on with.

Dasha arrives at court in Vuitton (image from dailymail.co.uk)

 I did bring you the news that this was on the cards, but it has now been officially confirmed that next year's Met exhibit will be a comparison of the work of Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli. To add further creative juices to the mix, Baz Luhrmann will be overseeing the retrospective. The opening gala will be co-hosted by Carey Mulligan who is currently working with Luhrmann on filming for The Great Gatsby. And, by the by, Tiffany will be providing all the jewels for the Gatsby movie. We feel a major fashion moment coming on.

The image which Baz Luhrmann released to announce Carey Mulligan's role as Daisy Buchanan (from deadline.com)

Alexander Wang has been on the peripheries of the fashion who'll-go-where-and-when saga for some time now since his name was thrown into the Dior hat. This week he told WWD:

“I always take a meeting and I always want to hear what people have to offer, but at the same time, I’ve been very content with focusing on our own brand,” he said. Wang said that if he took on an additional design gig, it would have to be something outside his comfort zone.
“If I was to do something else, I would want to do something that would be completely different from me,” he said, adding: “Sometimes you don’t get to say all you want to say in your brand.”

We could fill a book (has someone thought of doing that?!) with all the possibly relevant, yet probably irrelevant, comments we've heard in the past months but you never know.

Wang does his happy end of show bow back in 2010, now there are rumours he's moving beyond his own brand (image from harpersbazaar.com)

You have probably gathered that fashion month plays havoc with the skin, diets and general routines of all those that attend but today we ask you to take a moment to consider the humble feet of fashion show attendees and models alike. In Paris, the dust of the walk to the Tuileries has ruined the heavily invested in shoes of many a blogger/ photographer/ editor. This phenomenon was well documented on twitter, see exhibit A below. Models are no luckier; these shocking pictures of the feet of Sojourner Morrell, who walked in some of the biggest shows of the season from Marc Jacobs to Jonathan Saunders to Louis Vuitton, are one of the most extreme examples of the injuries which walking in sample heels every day for nearly a month can do. Any aspiring models, look away now...

The scourge of 'Tuileires feet' as tweeted by @candicelake

Ouch! (Image from refinery29.com)

Finally, much love for the new Sir Paul and Lady McCartney a.k.a Nancy Shevell who had a lovely looking wedding last Sunday. Fashion pundits have already said that the fact that the dress was designed by Paul's daughter Stella is the way we know this one will last; the last time Sir Paul got married, the bride did NOT wear McCartney. Sometimes a dress can speak a thousand words...

The official wedding portrait, captured by Mary McCartney (image from dailymail.co.uk)

PARIS FASHION WEEK: ALL ABOUT MCQUEEN

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

The Alexander McQueen show this evening was a spectacle of demi-couture as fine as any Parisian maison could create, though this finery is all pretty much handmade in London, England. Sarah Burton, fresh from the most unpredictably brilliant, fame-making 18 months of her life was in typically low-key form backstage, while onstage her work was breathtaking in its scope of technique and the clothes were extraordinarily beautiful and haunting. This served to remind us that McQueen is dead, but that someone lighter and easier in her skin than Lee, holds the key to unlocking the brands future.

It gave me cause for thought, though, that Burton and the Alexander McQueen business is putting out a message of pure high fashion drama, with not an easy-to-wear piece, or new season fashion message in sight. This collection was all dresses. I'm not complaining, because I know full well that the selling-collection and the McQ line lookbooks will slip into my in-box soon, and that there will be clothes for everyday life in there. But where does this leave normal folk interested in seeing what the McQueen fashion message is to be for Spring Summer 2012? I say enjoy the beauty, there is not enough beauty in the world. See for yourself.  It worked on us. We arrived at the McQueen show tired, we left on a high.

Furthering my attempts at photography with the new zoom lens, I give you the McQueen show, Fashion Editor At Large style.

Sarah sandwiched between Francois Henri Pinault (majority shareholder of Alexander McQueen) with his wife, the actress Salma Hayek. Salma said to her post the show "you have made me very happy"

Two tired but very happy Sarahs: Burton of McQueen, Mower of US Vogue, who is due to recieve her MBE next week.  

 

GILES TALKS PREFALL!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Got a call from Justine Fairgrieve (the founder of Relative): "Giles has invited you over for a cuppa and a look at his pre-fall, fancy it?" Prefall is a current working obsession. Giles is funny, charming and a very smart designer who never takes himself too seriously and yet has a very serious business creating collections for his own line GILES, new client Ungaro and various other projects. I was there.

Giles thinks his data bend print maxi dress is "a bit Eva Beadle in Little House on The Prairie" (She was the school mistress). I think its beautiful - Giles, consider this a personal order!

Why the prefall obsession?  Fashion consumers desire for frequent deliveries on new product has made the inbetween collections pretty major. So these days while the runway shows are designed to create media buzz and set trends, pre sets the agenda for how we will actually dress and offers a hint of what might come in the mainline.

Did you know we are in fact far more likely to end up wearing"pre" collections for our daily working and social lives. Why? Because its what the stores buy most of! Tom Chapman the co-owner of Matches recently told me pre collections constitute the majority of their buy.

Evidence of how the pre category has vaulted to high importance status was demonstrated last week when several of the world's eminent fashion editors and designers congregated in New York to view/show pre-fall collections. Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, Balenciaga and Celine presented in showroom. Lanvin even had a pre-fall fashion show. You can view them on American Vogue's website, or better still read this precis by the lovely Sarah Mower at Vogue.com, then view.

The week after next the Haute Couture shows will take place in Paris. For the average busy fashion editor there are six significant Couture shows to attend, but for the first time I can remember an equal number of hours will be spent viewing the pre-fall collections from labels ranging from Chloe to YSL.

Along the pre-fall rail at Giles cavernous new studio in The Truman Brewery

Three years ago the Giles pre-fall collection comprised ten dresses. Now it is a 70 piece collection (above) and the stores spend almost as much buying into it as they do on his runway collection. That also tells you how times they are a changin.

"Pre collections can't just be nice basics anymore," he says while flicking through the rail of blouse dress, maxi dress, draped day dress, cropped jackets, jazzy flared trousers and some applique chain detail Miss Haversham evening dresses. I see a lot of GILES best silhouettes reworked in stricter proportions, and a few new ones too like the eye-poppingly intense violet cerise blouse dress below.  

The blouse dress in cerise silk crepe and silk satin

GILES collections tend to have one of two moods; playful or strict. This one is veering strict. "Yeah its stricter, tighter, more austere," he says, though there is techno fun to be found in his data bending print. "Data bending is when kids mess with the binary numbering of pixels within photographs. I don't get what they do, but my print designer Rory Crighton ran with it. I think this was achieved by lifting the scanner lid..."  

Ooh trippy! The data bend print again. I shook the camera a tiny bit for effect.

"You need workness. It can't be boring. Really, I see this as setting the agenda for how I move forward on the runway collection."

All Giles hangers have the little goggle eyes. So cute!

Then it's time for tea and we discuss the inspirations for his runway show, (to be revealed later) and he shows me the venue for his Ungaro show in Paris on March 7th. It is a government building that has never been used for a fashion show, and it took 11 years of asking for Ungaro to be allowed to use it. Judging from the pictures the ambiance of the Ungaro show will be utterly magical.

The Katie Grand styled lookbook images getting laid out for running order.

Pre-fall hits shops at the end of June. For more pre-fall check back Monday when Fashion Editor at Large picks her personal top ten from the collections so far, and Fashion Junior at Large picks her top five. 

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND! 

PORT ELIOT: THE BEST FESTIVAL YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF

Guest Post by Fashion Junior at Large (George Langford)

If you go down to Cornwall this month, you are in for a big surprise. Nestled away on the Rame Peninsula, in the south east of the county, the most magical festival will be taking place in just over two weeks time. An enticing concoction of music, fashion, food and literary performances will be taking over the beautiful site of Port Eliot.

Port Eliot is the historic family seat of the Earl and Countess of St Germans, who have been hosting incredible festivals and events at in the House and grounds since the 1980s. In 2003, Peregrine and Catherine St Germans, along with a team of creative friends, founded the Port Eliot Lit Fest, with the idea of starting a completely new and exciting type of literary festival. Since then it has grown into an amazing mixture of music, the visual arts, incredible food, brilliant authors performing their work, and this year, a fantastic fashion element in the form of a dedicated tent in the Walled Garden (even the tents sound romantic!)

The first Port Eliot Festival had only 17 visitors, that number has grown to 5000 in only 7 years!

The organisers always encourage both the performers and festival goers to be as creative and free-spirited as possible during the weekend, which creates a truly magical atmosphere. It is not unusual for people to hold spontaneous seances in the woods, or a masked ball in the middle of the night, or for younger punters to run down to the 'One Minute Disco', held on the hour, every hour. It is this unique spirit that has meant knowledge of this boutique festival is spreading via word of mouth.
 

The capacity of Port Eliot festival is limited to 5000, which means everyone has space to camp wherever they so chose (a far cry from the usual flooded shanty towns of other festivals!) and there is the choice of several areas offering different forms of entertainment; the Cabaret Tent, the Boat House, the Caught By The River stage and the enchanting House of Fairy Tales.

A typical Port Eliot Festival goer!

There is a truly incendiary list of authors and musicians who will be performing at this year's event, but what has really tickled our fancy is the thought of the fashion tent in the Walled Garden.

Barbara Hulanicki (founder of Biba) and Fashion Junior's fave, Luella Bartley, will be making clothes for festival goers live and for free! How brilliant?! Sarah Mower, the British Fashion Council's Ambassador for Emerging Talent, will be interviewing milliner Stephen Jones on stage, and he will also be creating bespoke hats during the event.

  Stephen Jones driving the world's cutest golf buggy!

Taking a break from curating iconic exhibitions at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC (yes, where the amazing Met Ball is held), Andrew Bolton will be teaming up with fashion legend Anna Sui for another special event. Anna says of the festival itself:

"It's like a fairytale. Those vistas! You have to catch your breath."

That sounds like a good enough reason to discover the festival if ever we heard one. Tickets are still available if you want to experience some of the magic for yourself, and you can buy them/get more information from the website:

www.porteliotfestival.com

Images courtesy of Port Eliot (Bill Bradshaw, Fiona Campbell)