NATALIE WESTILING FOR MIU MIU CROISIERE 2015

Miu Miu enlists for its Croisière 2015 campaign the gorgeous up and coming model Natalie Westling as the new face of the brand, photographed by photographer Jamie Hawkesworth. The beautifully captured session took place in Olkhon Island in September 2014.

Jamie Hawkesworth’s portraits of flame-haired Natalie Westling – capturing the psychedelic allure of the Miu Miu Croisière 2015 collection ¬– are paired next to photographs of the built and natural world, shot with Hawkesworth’s instinctive eye for pattern and composition, and his signature saturated colour palette. Sunset shades of ochre, moss green and cerulean blue permeate the landscapes, offering a poetic counterpoint to the multi-coloured pattern, texture, and colour combinations of the collection. Giant swirling floral and paisley prints, striking crocheted vests and an embellished suede mini dress meet a rusting building, sky-blue painted wooden planks and the twisted naked branches of a perfectly framed tree, delicate but statuesque, much like Westling herself. – from Miu Miu

Here some pics from the Miu Miu Croisiere Collection 2015

PRADA READY TO WEAR SPRING SUMMER 2015 MILAN

PRADA SS2015

Designer Miuccia Prada sent the fashion set buzzing when retired supermodel Gemma Ward (who hasn’t walked a runway since 2008) opened the spring/summer 2015 show, wearing a dark fitted double-breasted coat, featuring an outline of contrasting top stitching, and a pair of knee-high stockings and platform clogs.

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

But it wasn’t just the models (supermodel Lara Stone closed the show) that were bracingly familiar, so too was the collection. It returned the designer to sturdier, albeit it purple, sand-swept ground this season.

Her fascination with perfect and proper ladylike ensembles, that she then proceeds to deconstruct or pervert with sensual undertones, has been a touchstone avenue of expression for Prada since the beginning.

Here that manifested itself in lovely frayed patchworks of antique brocades on dresses, and outlining stitchwork on tailored outerwear.

It was almost as if each of the models had been caught short for time, following an afternoon delight, and slipped their clothing on inside out, thus making the captivating, raw-edged silk seams of a garment its most alluring ornamentation. These naughty ladies were in such a hurry they didn’t even have time to slide on a pair of pants (not one appeared in the whole collection), underneath their covetable lace and leather coats.

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

PRADA SS2015

The designer returning to one of her preferred decades (the 1970s) was also rather reassuring. But unlike recent collections, this show didn’t feel as literal an interpretation. Instead, Prada found a way to take the sartorial codes of that era and bring them forward to today. So just a whiff of the hedonistic exploration of that period could be felt in the darker color palette and in the artisanal construction of the garments.

The purple Prada desert dunes that dominated tonight’s venue might have seemed like a trippy acid flash back. But Signora Prada was anything but parched of tempting ideas that, just like grains of sand, will creep into the crevasses of fashion’s future.