Italian fashion house's bold prints, maxi stripes and fruity earrings are taking the high street by storm
Hong Kong actor Cecilia Cheung models a dress by Miuccia Prada at a fashion show in Beijing. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
Triple-decker brothel creepers, loud lurid stripes, cartoonish monkeys and super bold bananas – even by Prada's own unconventional standards, this year's spring/summer collection is considered one of the Italian
fashion house's boldest ever. And the results have been equally striking.
The collection, first shown in Milan last September, has, as of this week, appeared on a staggering 48 international magazine covers (Prada itself confirmed this figure after a fashion blogger put the figure at a mere 15), including British magazines Marie Claire, i-D and Pop, which featured Elton John wearing a banana-print shirt on its cover.
Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, is also a fan. During London fashion week she sported a banana-print skirt and for this month's cover of the Wall Street Journal magazine she is wearing a bold striped Prada dress.
The catwalk look – described by its designer, Miuccia Prada, as "minimal baroque" – has had an equally pervasive effect on the high street. Numerous stores have produced their own versions of the bold stripes, now dubbed the "maxi stripe", and there are copies of Prada's catwalk sombreros.
Above all, there are the earrings. At the end of the Milan show, Mrs Prada was photographed in a pair shaped like yellow plastic bananas. She said at the time that she had wanted to put the earrings in the show, but that her assistant had thought them not beautiful enough.
Instead, they became the talk of the entire show season, and were added to the collection before it went into stores earlier this year. Now these earrings, and other fruit-themed jewellery, are spreading fast around the high street.
"Due to the popularity of fruit jewellery and the phenomenal initial reaction from the Oxford Circus store, Freedom at Topshop are rolling it out to all stores nationwide in the next seven days and expect to see the same reaction – especially the banana earrings," said Vivien Thomason, the store's buying director. Karen Bonser, Topshop's head of design, also noted that banana print leggings and shorts were selling well.
The Italian fashion house is on a roll. It recently announced record-breaking net profits of £221.2m for 2010, up 150% on 2009, and recent reports have suggested the label may be preparing to float on the Hong Kong stock exchange in July. Earlier this year it staged its first catwalk show in China as part of a plan to open more stores in Asia.
"Prada is the hot ticket in Milan," said Grazia style director Paula Reed. "It's not always the easiest collection but when Miuccia Prada is in the zone, there's nobody quite like her and for this collection she really was in the zone. I remember at the time thinking it was an instant winner."
Reed, who praised the photogenic clothes for their colour, whimsy and eccentricity, added: "It's a really heady concoction – I hate it when fashion gets too serious."
Meanwhile Harriet Quick, fashion features director for British Vogue, said: "It's fun, chic and extreme. Now that combo has not be in fashion for a while."
Galliano sacked again
The board of John Galliano's eponymous fashion label sacked him yesterday after his alleged antisemitic outburst in a Paris cafe.
Christian Dior, the French couture house that owns 91% of Galliano's business, removed him from his post as creative director.
Galliano was fired as Dior's head designer soon after the news of his drunken rant emerged six weeks ago, but until Friday he had been kept on at his own label.
He faces trial for racial and religious insults in relation to the incident. The state prosecutor has ruled that the star British couturier must appear in Paris's criminal court in the coming months and could face up to six months in prison and €22,500 in fines.
Galliano will face allegations of "public insults based on … origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity" involving three people.
