Prada SS12 Vintage Cars - A Design I Still Love

The other day I was looking through my old Vogue magazines and I spotted one of my favourite fashion prints. Back in Spring/ Summer 2012, Prada had a wonderful print: 1950's cars. I know we are 5 years on from this and there has been masses of innovation and incredible design since, but I would like to reflect back on it, as it still remains on of my favourite fashion prints. Hypothetically if I hadn't seen this design and somebody had told me that a high end fashion label was utilising a car print I probably would have rolled my eyes. Yet I love it! I regret my that in complete honesty my literal interpretation of this would be blocky child like cars, I wouldn't assume that they would use stylish and retro shaped cars. The designers of the Prada cars print have created it to look both sophisticated and playful, proving yet again that a designers vision and creativity is always one big step ahead.

The catwalk for the Prada S/S12 show was decorated with Styrofoam sports cars and exhaust pipes, again an unusual choice of decoration. I can't help but wonder whether Miuccia Prada was trying to convey a feminist message with the cars, there could be many interpretations of this. Obviously cars are not typically used as a print for women's clothing, they are still unfortunately most commonly applied to boy's clothing (despite the fact girl grow up to drive cars too, weird I know). The collection was well received by consumers and fashion critics. There were instant imitations on the high street, at University a friend of mine wore a pale blue, sleeveless blouse with a 1950's car print on it; of course I questioned her and discovered it was a Primark £8 piece (I am still not sure how they quite got away with such a blatant imitation).

(The £8 Primark imitation)

Going back to the Prada collection, the colour palette for these prints is also successful. The seasonality is reflected in the combination of pale pastel hues, with bright shades of red and coral, also there strong bolts of dark green and burgundy (more on the leather pieces). Personally I prefer the smaller scale print on the clothing rather than the larger scale motif on the jackets and the bags in the image below. The larger scale motif is definitely more bad ass/ rock n roll, which isn't how I would describe the print at a smaller scale. Yet as a whole collection I believe it fits together well and the change of scale works effectively.

So are Prada still doing car prints? Kind of, or should I say not really. A quick internet search still echoes praise and admiration for the SS12 collection, but it appears that Prada left the 1950's cars in 2012. I believe it is a good and under-rated trait of high end fashion designers not to exhaust an idea to the limit (like high street money making machines do), and move on to something new and exciting. There is a backpack though. With cars printed on it. Definitely not the same style, completely modern with a more masculine edge, and clearly not the round 2 I was sort of* hoping for but different in it's own right.

#Prada #Carprint #Fashionprint #Imitation