Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Prada’s Minimal Baroque or Baroque’s Minimalism?


Prada’s minimal baroque raised a lot of applause and criticism this season. Were the bananas and the monkeys to represent intellectuals or were ironic? Do Carmen and Josephine speak minimalism in terms or quantity or style?


Other than Prada, the rest seemed to stick to either one of the words for the spring 2011 shows, minimal OR baroque in the sense of excess.  As one might have noticed, baroque has just too many connotations and Miuccia stuck to the many of them from excessiveness to the sculptures.

 From the church of Quirinale to the Trevi Fountains the style is in-bred in Rome in its cultural history. Also there are other important references to the baroque style such as the Portuguese painter Josefa de Óbidos’s paintings and the Augustusburg palace near Cologne which seem to widen the ancient phenomenon to a European scope of view.  Speaking of Minimalism one not just remembers the black square of Malevich but also Composition No. 10 of Piet Mondrian (inferenceà Stripes).  And there comes the minimal reference and not the process.


 And so there was the collection, a revolution of the baroque with a tribute to Miranda and Baker in the Prada girl of the season, fun in culture. London’s Christmas windows of Prada seemingly Baroque framed themselves. Prada played with the Baroque angel sculptures using monkeys from the ’Barrel of Monkeys’ game. Prada’s change from minimalism to minimal baroque has elevated the brand’s status to new heights.



The baroque excessiveness in its modernity fused with the Samba and Charleston were in the tango music and the pops of colors. The 20s sensuality blended in with the slick hair. The idea was juggled in Prada’s mind and thereby manifested in the collection.

Like it or not, the show remains a huge incomparable topic for many. And Prada’s elevation has been beyond successful.

No comments:

Post a Comment