Why Prada’s new campaign isn't as sugar sweet as you think

Like slightly uncanny 60s debutantes, Prada's AW15 campaign girls (shot by Steven Meisel) look dressed for the prom – hair done up in high, bouffant-like ponytails, skin like that of porcelain dolls and two-piece suits in pastel hues reminiscent of a box of macaroons, accessorised with jewel-embellished brooches and hair clips. Starring seven of Prada’s fresh faces of the season – including breakout stars Lineisy Montero and Avery Blanchard – the images are, in the words of the fashion house, an “ironic ode to meta-modern femininity.”

Basically, not everything is as sugar-sweet as the hues would have you believe. As much as the collection is pretty, it’s perfect – too perfect. In fact, its perfection is artificial more than it is aspirational. Think Stepford Wives – it comments, quite subtly, on the representation of women and the unrealistic beauty ideals in our society. This stance shouldn't come as a surprise from Miuccia Prada who is famously, and staunchly, feminist. Last month she told wealthy wives, “If you don't work, how can you be happy?”

The synthetic materials also serve to crack the collection's saccharine façade. Take for example the shoes, some metallic, all with clompy rubber soles. And the opera gloves, of both leather and ostrich skin, add an element of fetishism to the hyper feminine foray. 

Check out the full set of images above, and see all the images from backstage at Prada AW15 below: