In the field of fashion there are recognized ongoing, timeless names that represent the very highest of style, like the Gucci loafer or the Hermes scarf. And there are also designers who have that same sense of timelessness a sense of style that leaves the rest of us wondering how we can have just a tiny part of what comes easily to them. Prada is just such a designer.

One thing Miuccia Prada does well is challenge convention in a sly, subversive way that  has always been one of her most forceful arguments and influence. Another strength of this favorite innovator is her ability to evoke, then upend the familiar. Her constant experimentation with fabrics and shapes is what first made her famous.

Talking about sentiment and feeling Miuccia Prada is in existential mode”Dreaming is forbidden, nostalgia is forbidden, to be too sweet is not good. Everything we used to feel historically, now you can’t enjoy. The clothes are  the expression of this impossible dream” Sentiment and feeling are both our yearnings for a more innocent state and the futility of those yearnings.

In this Prada ensemble we have Prada embracing traditional tropes of femininity and womanhood, a geisha’s servitude, even. And yet in her signature way, she couldn’t help turning those notions.Prada has manipulated, folded and wrapped duchesse satin to evoke the ritual of kimono dressing. For Prada this Japanese element came late in the design process.”I wanted it to be tough and serious”she said all the folding was a consequence.Duchesse satin tough? Again we see the duality.

There is poetry in the pairing of the blouse and skirt with the apron wrapped around the skirt. But walking in the towering Harajuku girl platforms with leather judo socks bound with patent leather bows there is power too. Only Prada can tweak nostalgia into something that feels modern and new.