Prada's big game
Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2006
MILAN The motorcycle helmet was covered in fur like some scalped trophy. Gauntlets were leather armor. Dark lenses were gripped by bird claws. Embossed bags could have been medieval manuals, from which had sprung the battle scenes projected on the walls.
Prada's powerful show on Monday brought animal magic to the Milan menswear season - even if it was the accessories, from tooled boots to throw-on animal print raincoats - that stole the show.
"What I had in mind was heroic and romantic - the forbidden dreams of men and boys," said Prada of her urban warriors.
The clothes were as tame as the accessories were savage: slim-line coats and suits and comfy cardigans livened up with the splodgy jungle prints. Only quilted jackets and dropped-crotch pants, with bindings and openings at the ankle, seemed experimental.
Yet Prada pulled off the show because of the drum beat of animal power that coursed alongside the dramatic soundtrack from "Don Giovanni." The designer understands that men need clothes for the real world - but that behind the streamlined modern facade run the same currents of forceful masculinity that have existed and always will.
Prada's Google-style linking of cultures ancient and modern is exceptional. The battle frieze was half cyberspace videogame; the knitted balaclavas could have been chain-mail armor. By zapping war, hunting and other such male rites of passage and turning them into a scarf laid across a bared chest or a gilded dragon pennant on a belt or a bag, Prada kept ahead of the big game.
and did she really say "Google-style linking of cultures" WTF?
I'd say "put it here, put that there":-D
To be honest, if not a tFSter who went to the show, said that Prada went medieval, I would not know it is medieval - oh, maybe the knit hat (or helmet).
But looking at the fur and leopard print, it's really yabadabadoo:-))
What is this..the story of a super-luxe Milanese biker??
Apart from the banded short trousers,it's hideous and gimmicky as always.
edit*I just read the article and her explanation is rather moronic,to be honest. I don't get any of what she said out of this. Did she come up with that at the last minute? Seems that way. It has no resonance...just silly.
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'rise like lions after slumber. in invanquishable number-shake your chains to earth like dew which in sleep had fallen on you-ye are many-they are few'
percy bysshe shelley,the last verse of:
the mask of anarchy
I love all those pants....other thant that it's nothing special.
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All I want to do is fur pants, but I know, like, if I do them I'll get stoned off of Seventh Avenue like some kind of wanton heretic or something. So there won't be any fur pants coming down my runway - Isaaz Mizrahi my blog - random musings of a fashion fiend
I love all those pants....other thant that it's nothing special.
had a second go at men.style.com and i can say this is better than i frist thought..
totally love the hem closure detailed trousers, the styling and all the knits
I don't like the fur covered helmets or the animal print or the over sized sweaters but the suit's, Pants, bags, and boots look nice. what was she thinking?
To me it looks like ill-fitting size 52 Banana Republic stuff thrown on cute size 46 boys (the casting's nice) . I bet they spiced up the lot with those dodgy hides in the last minute...Isn't this the 1st season with Olivier Rizzo styling Prada mens? HUGE disappointment, if it's him behind the looks.
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" If fashion is your trade, then when you're naked, I guess you must be unemployed" Jarvis Cocker/Pulp
i have a sneaky feeling that many people are saying negative things about this collection only because it's prada (and to so many it's the devil).
it seems odd to me that versace should be getting more positive reviews
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"...buttoned up to the breast, and made with wings, welts, and pinions on the shoulder points, as mans apparel is for all the world...and though this be a kinde of attire appropriate onely to man, yet they blush not to wear it..."
had a second go at men.style.com and i can say this is better than i frist thought..
totally love the hem closure detailed trousers, the styling and all the knits
I just saw the whole collection at men.style.com as well, and I am rethinking my original opinion. The whole collection is much broader than these few pictures from yahoo.
Sure there are still the quirky items, but as a whole, it is more Prada and really very nice.
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It's said,
The map of the world is on you
The moon gravitates around you
i have a sneaky feeling that many people are saying negative things about this collection only because it's prada (and to so many it's the devil).
it seems odd to me that versace should be getting more positive reviews
I don't have a problem with prada. In fact I liked the last to seasons men and women's. But the fall 2006 line looks a little like they were trying to hard and recycle ideas from their women's line in to the men's and to me it doesn't look like it worked.
liked the use of grey and the styling minus fur helmets or animal print coats 
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