Several seasons back, Miuccia Prada set womenswear afire with a collection that plumbed the heart of darkness underneath society s veneer of civilization. With her latest collection for men, she offered a cuddlier version of the same idea—somewhere between a caveman and a baby-boy doll," as she herself defined it in her typically cryptic way. What started out as a relatively straightforward search for a new silhouette ended up as an extraordinary torrent of big, fuzzy-fabric tops over narrow, uniformly stirrup-panted bottoms. Brightly colored angora tops—with matching angora leggings—are unlikely to make the average butch bloke s Fall 2007 wish list, but they cued Miuccia s musings on the status of the modern male.
She seems to have settled on intense vulnerability as his Achilles heel. Hence a gutsy tweed duffel coat fading away in dégradé, or conservative flannels equally distressed in gradations from dark to light gray. Such effects were achieved by bleeding-edge fabric technology, which underscored Prada s unique knack for using industrial techniques to spark atavistic emotional responses. Whether the models were swathed in creamy teddy-bear plush or shaggy black fur, the key word was mutation, as the collection trawled a disorienting half-world between man and beast. And how many designers get you thinking like that?
