Miu Miu Womenswear S/S12

Prada's take on sweetness might have led on to even a sweeter ending at Miu Miu especially with the run of cotton candy fem-fem fluff that Paris has served us with. However, Miuccia Prada is not one to run with conventional pattern and when Igor Stravinsky's jolting The Rite of Spring score thundered through the room and a surge of black and grey shirts and a-line skirts with bow-ridden stoles that didn't quite fit right came out, we knew we were in for a rockier ride. Prada has of course been there and done that with overt girly sweetness, most notably in her S/S10 collection and this was perhaps her final reaction to the season, a girl gone demented and wrapped up in layers of industrial grey. 

Even the prettiness of detailed smocking is reduced to a concrete shade. When a brittle looking lace came pounding in along with leather intaglio boots and mules, the tension between girlish charm and menacing hardness was made all the more clear. The little capes and stoles that were tied around the models' shoulders contrasted with the fur wraps and peplums of last season which were so picture perfect. These were purposely misplaced which of course is exactly the sort of odd effect that Ms. Prada nails every time. The effect of the misaligned patchwork of wallpaper florals, were again, did not recall something sweet and pretty but instead took on a twisted form, like Little Red Riding Hood had gone astray.