It would be easy to intellectualise Miuccia Prada’s Spring/Summer 2014 collection and wax lyrical about its messages of girls doing it for themselves. But for a collection as bold and empowering as this one, it would almost spoil the fun. M.I.A.’s Bring the Noize cast its frantic frenzy over the blacked-out Via Fogazzaro space, contrasted by the massive murals commissioned by Miuccia Prada from a string of muralists and illustrators with the objective of portraying the power of feminine multitude. It was a bejewelled bra styled over a utilitarian army green coat that first manifested this theme in the collection before the murals themselves entered into coats, dresses and bags. As prints they were pretty intense. How’s wearing the giant face of a blonde on your coat for a feminist statement? But in all their loudness, they contributed to a spirited sense of city-dweller identity and managed to sum up the collection’s parallel theme of the urban jungle, its global market place and the cosmopolitan culture clash that comes with it.
There was a certain ghetto vibe about the whole thing, heightened by the bling of big cuffs and rocks on dresses, and the killer swag of seventies’ sportswear elements such as stripy legwarmers and web sandals. (‘Miuccia Prada for American Apparel,’ quipped a writer in Block A.) While Prada’s badassery had its predictable moments, the feisty fun of the collection made it thrilling, not least as Britney Spears’ Work Bitch made its way into the soundtrack and tied everything together.
