The giveaway was the first shirt on the Miu Miu catwalk, the one with the big magic mushroom. Perhaps Miuccia Prada herself had had a little nibble, because what followed was positively psychedelic. As her signature line's younger sibling, Miu Miu has always represented a certain spirit of reckless youth and freedom for Prada—and this season she took that attitude on a trip. It wasn't just the mushrooms. There were also banana motifs (for those who remember the mellow-yellow sixties), little Indian mirrors all over shirts and ties, and the huge eyes of an Eastern deity staring out from chests and backs. And don't forget the flower-appliquéd flat cap and the patchwork pants and the shorts that looked like they'd been cut from the Brady family's curtains. If the eccentric decorative elements suggested an outsider artist run riot, that was merely in keeping with Prada's own magpie aesthetic. It's all about borrowing from any time, any place, to give vital character to clothing—and what a character the Miu Miu man will be!
