Manolo says, the Manolo he has updated and improved the look of his much ignored Prada blog. And with the updated look comes the promise from the Manolo to again begin the frequent postings about the Prada, the Miuccia, and the thoughts of the Manolo about the Prada.
Manolo says, here is the link to the site that has more pictures of the very amusing Prada Marfa
P.S. Many thanks to the Manolo’s internet friend the Kim for the link.
Manolo says, from the Times of the New York comes this most amusing art story.
TEXAS, as big as it is, does not have a Prada store. It does have Neiman Marcus, which carries plenty of Prada merchandise, but the state cannot boast a free-standing store dedicated to Miuccia Prada’s expensive shoes and oddly shaped bags.But come Saturday it will look as if a tornado had picked up a Prada store and dropped it on a desolate strip of U.S. 90 in West Texas. That is where Prada Marfa, a permanent sculpture by the Berlin artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset will be installed. (Actually it will go up in Valentine, Tex., about 26 miles outside Marfa, a town of 2,400 that has become a magnet for artists and art lovers.)
The sculpture is meant to look like a Prada store, with minimalist white stucco walls and a window display housing real Prada shoes and handbags from the fall collection. But there is no working door.
A few years ago, when much of the SoHo art scene was being chased to Chelsea by the proliferation of designer shops, Elmgreen & Dragset, as the artists are known, installed signs in the windows of a Chelsea gallery that read, “Prada, Coming Soon.” It was enough to temporarily fool and impress Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen, who are producing Prada Marfa through their nonprofit Art Production Fund with support from Ballroom Marfa, a performance and alternative-art space in Marfa.
“We loved this proposal for many reasons,” Ms. Villareal said. “We loved the idea of the piece being born on Oct. 1 and that it will never again be maintained. If someone spray-paints graffiti or a cowboy decides to use it as target practice or maybe a mouse or a muskrat makes a home in it, 50 years from now it will be a ruin that is a reflection of the time it was made.”
The piece hints at subjects to which designers are sensitive: the unchecked growth of luxury brands, the temporal relevance of fashion, retail as tourism and a culture that is devoted to buying and selling. But Ms. Villareal said that Miuccia Prada had given the artists the permission to use her trademark for the work. She also picked out the shoes.
The Prada Marfa, it makes the Manolo laugh just thinking about it…but is it art?
Yes! It is Prada, no?
Manolo says, here is another of the homemade ads from the Joel. It is quite good, no?
Manolo says, one of the Manolo’s many internet friends, the Joel, who is the freelance designer of the graphics, has sent the Manolo this beautiful ad he has made for the Prada. Indeed, it is so good that someone should hire the Joel to do the designing.
Manolo says, the Manolo’s internet friend the Olivia she has written to tell the Manolo that she has finally found the Katie Holmes bag.
Hola, Manolo! You may remember me as the girl who asked about Katie Holmes’ purple Prada tote. Well, I saw it at the Neiman’s in New Jersey (in the purple canvas with crocodile trim, just like Katie’s), and it cost $2,140. It was lined in super luxurious leather, though with the crap I put in my handbags, it would be bound to be stained by a leaking pen or lip gloss tube. It also was too big for my needs. Gorgeous bag, though.
Many thanks to the Olivia for this information. The Manolo he has not been in one of the stores for many weeks. Soon it will be the time for the visit.
Manolo says, look the Prada it is starting it’s own line of the denim.
The cuts are traditional (no Dolce & Gabbana-style 3-inch rises here), and the seven different finishes range from dark blue to gray. Understated aesthetic aside, you’ll instantly recognize the designer’s touch, thanks to the familiar red tag on the right cuff, logo inside the watch pocket, and a just-short-of-subtle “Prada” stitched on the right rear pocket.
This it is indeed good news.
Technorati Tags Prada
Manolo says, Ayyyyyyy! Our Muse the Miuccia she has again triumphed with her clothing for the men. Here is the article from the beautiful Samurai Suzy about her show yesterday in the Milan.
In her fresh, clean-cut show and in her wise words, Miuccia Prada put into perspective the malaise pervading high fashion menswear, which other Italian designers have tried to face off with vivid color and graphic pattern for summer 2006.“Fashion should become more egalitarian. I am not interested in dealing with a few sophisticated people,” Prada said. “Crisscrossing everything is the main issue: the need to face the huge world and to appeal to new countries and new customers.”
So for Prada, Monday’s show was a stark return to basics: to the skinny silhouette, to fabrics treated with techno shine, to nylon work-wear, to hosiery-fine sweaters and to symbols to identify the label. And being Prada, with her penchant for a communist/populist aesthetic, that meant stars (but not necessarily red) printed on shirts, neckties or decorating the new must-have nylon backpack - along with hearts to put soul into a sober collection.
The result was a show of those perfectly judged and wearable clothes on which Prada built its empire. But the reprise did not include her much-copied brief coat, short boxy suits or sour colors. In fact, Prince of Wales tailoring was classic, and there was a wry sweetness to an aqua blue suit, to a dusty pink shirt or a moss green sweater. Pants with softening pleats offered a new cut.
Why is Prada so often ahead of the pack? Because she has an ability to invent new menswear classics as if they had always existed. After a few seasons of kooky effects, any piece of this show - and that includes the head-wrap hats - could have walked right out on silvered sneakers or smart leather shoes onto the Milan streets. It was fashion for the real world and for its future.
Manolo says, this it is exactly right, exactly the reason the Manolo he loves the Miuccia, she makes the clothes for the real world. Her aesthetic it is egalitarian, and mostly functional, and yet, at the same of the time, it is also classic.
Here are the few of the pictures from the show.
This sweater and pants and shirt, they are to the mind of the Manolo, superb. Perhaps they should not belong in the Spring/Summer line, but they are beautiful, and completely wearable.
Again, this it is fashion for the real world. This, it is the way the young men they would really dress, in this casual manner.
The Manolo he would not pair this shirt with this suit, but then the Manolo he is sometimes the overly stuffy traditionalist. However, having said that, the Manolo he is in the love with this suit.
This, as with many of the shirts in this collection, it is something that one could wear only if one was both young and very handsome. However, these pants, they would be suitable for one, like the Manolo, with the more traditional middle-aged male figure.
And finally, the appearance of our muse, peeking out from behind the curtain in her customary and charming pose.
Technorati Tags Prada
Manolo says, here is the link to long article on the aftermath of the Helmut Lang leaving his firm after its purchase by the Prada.
There’s little doubt about Helmut Lang’s major influence over the fashion of the last 15 years. Consumers can thank him for flat-front pants, the number of buttons on men’s suits — first three, more recently two — and the spiraling prices of designer jeans and T-shirts. An entire culture of prestige denim was born from Lang’s low-rise jeans with intricate washes, for which he dared to charge close to $200 in the 1990s.So powerful was his creative leadership that when he said he would show his collections in Manhattan ahead of European rivals, most American designers followed suit, and New York Fashion Week was permanently rescheduled.
Yet the designer, who was once a driving force of minimalism, has found himself in a state of free fall, with his empire being dismantled piece by piece.
Four months ago Lang left the company that bears his name after long-running discontent with the Prada Group, which owns it. In early May, Prada began talks to sell off the business, describing it as unprofitable. In late May, Prada told managers at the designer’s stores in New York and Paris they would be shuttered in July.
[…]
Publicly, Prada executives attributed the slide to declining tourism related to fear of terrorism and severe acute respiratory syndrome and to the strong euro, but not to what some retailers now acknowledge, that Lang’s dedication to minimalism was absolute even as consumer tastes evolved.
“Look at Dolce & Gabbana, Cavalli, Dior and Chloe,” said Carla Sozzani, the owner of 10 Corso Como, an influential store in Milan, where Prada is based. “That has nothing to do with Helmut Lang. The whole concept of minimalism was very good in the early ’90s, but then for the past several years, people were not interested in that look.”
Another reason for the decline in sales was Prada’s cancellation of a license to an outside company to make Helmut Lang jeans, which were responsible for more than half of the brand’s revenues. In their trademark dark blue or black, the jeans were sold at more than 700 stores around the world. The decision to cut back production was in line with the dominant philosophy of building a designer label through expensive leather handbags and shoes and opening chic retail stores.
Lang said at the time the move would protect the exclusivity of his name. That was the mantra of the luxury industry circa 2000, as intoned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and other companies.
But in reducing the production of Helmut Lang denim, Prada was in a sense killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. “This may have been good for the image, but maybe not good for the business,” Sozzani said.
The departure of the Helmut Lang, and the subsequent decline of the Helmut Lang brand, it is, together with the similar events at the Prada-owned Jil Sander, among the conspicuous failures of the recent Prada strategy of expansion. Perhaps, the retrenchment into the core of the Prada business it is needed?
Technorati Tags Prada, Helmut Lang
Manolo says, here is the Katie Holmes with her Prada bag, and some unnamed man.
The Manolo and one of the Manolo’s many internet friends they have been looking for this bag with the purple croc trim in the stores and on the internet and have not been able to locate it.
Yes it is the Nylon and Leather Tote, but it has the desirable purple croc trim, rather than the black leather trim.
It is the opinion of the Manolo, yet to be confirmed, that this it is the pre-release of this bag, perhaps given to the Katie Holmes before it appears in the stores.
