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Prada S/S 2011

Art / Architecture / Design / Fashion

Prada

Spring/Summer 2011

Once again Miuccia Prada has defied expectations and challenged norms. In a season of all-white openers, Prada’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection featured neon colors, vibrant prints, and fiery silhouettes.

Posted June 6th, 2019 By Colby Mugrabi

Perhaps the most obvious influences on this collection are the 1920s and Latin America. The models’ finger wave hair, drop-waist skirts, and fur stoles all signify Josephine Baker, not to mention the banana print throughout the collection which references Baker’s famous banana ensemble from 1926. On the other hand, the vibrant tropical colors, oversized brimmed hats, and ruffled hems all look to Latin America for inspiration. The use of stripes, cheeky baroque prints with the collection’s signature bananas, and the replacement of cherubs with monkeys all make use of playfulness and reject the serious.

Still, elements of Prada’s designs remain hard to define. The opening looks featured the collection’s neon colors, but their unusual stiff sleeves and rounded shoulders seem to make a different point than the more fun-loving looks of the collection. Meanwhile, other ensembles reference the nurses scrubs of Prada’s previous menswear collection. Finishing out the show were a series of black and grey ensembles, including skirt suits. The element of playfulness carries through here in horizontal stripes, adding fun into even the most serious looks of the collection. It is difficult to determine exactly what Miuccia meant with this collection, but as with all things, the devil is in the details.