Can we please have a moment of silence...

For Prada? Because, why do I love this woman so much? Well, this is why. It's like, who does this? She is the reinventor of reinventors. She takes these things, like chunky knit sweaters and brown tweed, and square toe platforms, things that we all categorically decided were on the fashion don'ts list and makes them current again, if only for the sake of challenging our notions of what "fashionable" is. Only she, only her, the one and the only, I wish I could sing her a song. Love love love. And the glasses! With the eyebrows!? I Cant. I just cant. Ok, excuse my babbling and gushing, now I'm going to attempt an actual review.

In spite of the fabrics and prints all being so played down, the silouhettes were quite sexy. There's an emphasis on the bosom in all of the dresses with the ruffles, the wool sweater/skirt sets are all synched at the waiste, and let us not forget those strategically placed darts. Its all quite ironically erotic. But its done in such a subtle, around-the-corner- and-through-the-backdoor kind of way. Its almost like a well covered joke, Here is this demure, lady-like, covered up collection, but there are all these details, ie. the placement of the ruffles, the aptly placed darts; Your eye see's one thing at first glance, but your mind still see's something quite sexy, even if you don't realize it right away.

Its because Miuccia Prada is a genius. Oh, I'm doing it again. Back to the review. With Prada, the sex appeal is never obvious, but always deliberate. Her collections are often a hard pill to swallow at first, but like a month later you're looking at the collection on style.com for the 5th time, going, Oohhh yeaaahhh, wooooow... those dresses made of chandelier crystals are amazing! Meanwhile Miuccias already moved on to the next trend she's decided to create and having a quiet chuckle to herself. She's just in her own lane, up the street and around the corner. She is an inventor. Ugh, ok sorry, Im stopping now.

P.S. I do realize this show happened like 3 days ago. I just didn't want to go on without paying my respects. Loooooove you Miuccia.

Pss. Does this collection make anyone else think of Mary Tyler Moore? Maybe that's why it makes me so happy.

Who are you and what have you done with Gucci?

Gucci's all grown up, and me likey. Since the resignation of Tom Ford, the label has been in a bit of a slump. But Frida Giannini is on a mission to breathe new life into the Italian powerhouse and she doesn't want to hear a thing about that film-making predecessor everyone keeps going on about. She's determined to make her own footprint in this company, and if this collection is any indication, I think she's finally hit her stride.

Autumn/Winter was dominated by a pallette of neutrals, greys and cream. She focused strongly on tailoring, with a slim ostritch and suede patchwork coat, and even slimmer cut pants that flute slightly at the bottom. There were a couple of fitted dresses but she managed to drop the hemline slightly lower than usual and paired them with opaque tights. This is a different kind of glam and it might leave the typical Gucci consumer a bit shell shocked. Gucci has become synonamous with an over the top night time decadence that might have isolated a certain fragment of buyers in the past. This time around Frida has transferred the brand's signature lux sex appeal to the daytime, to let you know she's no one trick pony; Gucci can be as easily worn to the office cocktail party as it can for a star studded premiere or Vegas night out, and for all of us buyers who have been standing on the outside anxiously anticipating a moment like this, that is very welcome news. Belissimo!

V-Day

Ok so the Milan shows have been going on for like 2 days now and I've just been pretending like they aren't because I feel this quicksand type of effect happening to me when I actually click on one of those pretty little pictures on style.com. Before I know it its 5 hours later and I'm going through detail shots of McQueen boots from like 2003. So ok, here it is. Cover me, Im going in.

First up... Versace-

I wouldn't normally probably even cover Versace because well, if you don't have anything nice to say...
And this collection really wasn't any exception. The thing I thought was really interesting is that for a fashion house that's been around for over 30 years, the collection came across as a designer struggling to figure out who she is. Now I may not like what Versace's got to say season after season, but atleast she stays in her lane. Shes glam, shes body-con, shes over the top, and she loves it.

Well all of a sudden, apparently shes decided to ditch who she is and roll with the trends, and as body-con may be taking a back seat for a while, she's experimenting with something very...umm..different.

She started with a wool coat with fur arms paired with a yellow skirt in a fabric I can only describe as aluminum, and do I really need to start in on those leather legwarmers? I say no. She traversed in and out of leather motorcycle pants, some with built in chaps, and paired these asymetrically/geometrically cut skirts with well... everything. It wasn't until about look 32 that I was able to relax my eyebrows >:/ and remember whose show I was watching. The kicker, was that at the end of the show, its almost as if she was just like, "F it!" and went straight back to what she wanted to be doing the whole time anyways. I'm still scratching my head about this one...

On a positive note though, I do think the vynil futuristic mini dresses will be very popular this season editorially, and the white gown with the cut-outs isn't half bad. I'm predicting A-list celeb at award show in this one fairly soon. Too bad the Grammy's are over, its such a Grammy gown. Anyways, I'm babbling now, here are the pictures.

And then the Versace show began...