Miuccia Prada has always insisted she is most inspired by things she hates. On the evidence of her new men's collection, she clearly has no time for golf. But her distaste sparked a collection that was even more playful and upbeat than Spring-Summer 2010's smash hit. After the show, Miuccia conceded that the wacky world surrounding golf, with its eccentric dress codes and good-taste-be-damned point of view, had rather captivated her. It's a world not incompatible with her own. The set for today's show, for instance, was an acre of emerald green Astroturf dotted with blue cubes on which the audience perched (an abstract rendition of the earth and sky of the ideal golf course, perhaps). The soundtrack was Fun Boy Three's "The Tunnel of Love" and "Summertime," which, in this context, took on a kitschy funfair vigor. And the clothes and accessories?
Golf, obviously, in the checked tailoring, the louder-the-better floral-printed pants and blousons, the caps and multicolored kilties, and the Prada-branded clubs. Miuccia had also woven in a strand of Americana with rhinestone-studded cowboy shirts and ole western boots. The lone figure of the rhinestone golfer seemed a suitably surreal Prada hero.
But it was in the prints where the collection came most alive. A vintage shirt found in Miami supplied a naïve visual of dancing couples that the Prada studio mutated into other leisure activities: surfing, boating, and, yes, golfing. The fact that they could have been illustrations from a children's book only emphasized the spirit and verve of a collection that kicked some much-needed life into the men's season in Milan.
