Prada: Inspired by the Ancients

Stunningly predictable, Prada's Womenswear Spring/ Summer 2009 ad campaign envisions itself through Italy's famed ancient Greek past, reinterpreting classic battle scenes chiseled into the pediments found throughout Athens and Rome.

"The embattled office interns," as I’ve deemed, frames Miuccia Prada idea for the season's campaign. The vigorously gesturing models appear frozen in actions as their calm, yet fierce faces, glare at their competition as they all vie for the presumed one coveted position.
Steven Meisel marvelously captured the strife of these models through his expert lens. The bas-relief style flattens the actions, however, the upward-looking camera lens dramatizes their actions and monumentizing these office squabbles into epic battles seemingly ripped from the Parthenon itself.

The appearance of the models further emphasizes the antique theme as their faces have light powdery make-up like those of Grecian women who never left the confines of their palaces, along with their long dramatic hair, always tidily pulled up into a rolls. Yet, these modern remakes infuse color and irony to the historic gestures claiming style and excess as their purpose.

The elegantly crinkled metallic attire draping the glamazons appoint the collection with a classic grandeur famed in ancient Greece and typical to Prada. Ancient royal contemporaries were known for their garish displays of wealth emulated in these metallic ensembles. These polished and highly resolute metallic pieces are striking, yet, are not over-saturated in their styling and photographic arrangement.

The simple silhouettes created by the a-line dresses find home in this period, mimicking the himation, peplos and chiton chic goddess of the time. The off-the-shoulder draping and the plunging backs softened with an excess of crinkled fabrics are matched with dangling silk straps composing the ensemble. Particular to this collection, however, are the natural lines composing the ensembles. Largely remiss of the typically rigid and highly tailored lines signature of Prada, here pointed collars and exacting skirt hems are relaxed and rounded by ruching and crinkling.

Ironic here, though, are the smathering of patterned ensembles who defy the collections aesthetic and reinterpret the labels staple-- rigid lines. Though these patterned piece are constructed with rigid lines, they are not clean ones. The patterned blood red dresses, snake-skin skirts, alongside other prints do indeed have definite lines, however, these would-be constructive lines are purposefully flaunted, presenting asymmetric lines that crash down the side of dresses and ripple down the side of skirts brilliantly. All atop magnificent platform silhouettes.

The collection is striking, despite the predictable gaze. Prada’s daring collection again shows progress from the austerely chic aesthetic so frequented before Miuccia Prada’s direction. In fact, her brilliant creative high jinks typified by duality and contradictions, have catapulted the label from quiet elegance to clamoring couturier.