Prada laid down the law yesterday with a show that will be hard to beat as best of the season. It was Prada to the core as in quirky and naughty while being completely new in terms of techniques like printing on fringes and introducing some killer new raw materials which don’t even have a name yet. Some dresses looked like they were cloaked in smoke while they floated down the runway and Simons explained backstage that they call it the “haze fabric”. The men’s wear silhouette and fabrics were carried over from June and had a sober closing on Raf’s fetish model Julia Nobis in a tailored big shoulder ensemble. Terminology like nylon flou or the intricate technicality of embroideries are common ground here. It’s about clothes and Miss Prada underlined backstage that she is bored talking about concepts and ideas but wants to be judged on the wearability and ubiquity of her designs.

The way Prada is growing seems to underline that the Miuccia-Raf duo is working and seems to be the only relevant succession plan in fashion now. The designers also wanted to make a point that Prada clothes are of superb quality and the house has been around since 1913 after all and a bag by Miuccia’s grandfather from that year was included. It’s a fact in fashion that French brands love to tout their roots and pontificate about their craftsmanship or the hundreds of hours it took a dress to make. “I am bored with that; it needs to show in the clothes” vowed Simons in a private conversation backstage. “We do embroidery and have a flou atelier which can rival anything in Paris, and I know.” After all the Antwerp based designer has made Haute Couture at Dior and his sense for the craft and Prada’s dogged down to earth wearability seems to have found a new high point with this show.