Two big names took to the runway at Milan Fashion Week on Thursday and could not have offered more different perspectives. Fondazione Prada was the venue for the Prada show, which was dense with intellectual references — many too obscure for anyone to fathom — but as always, offered a parade of must-haves for the next season. Created by the duo of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, this was Simons's first event since cancelling his namesake show in London after the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-aged-96-buckingham-palace-announces/" target="_blank">death of</a><a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-aged-96-buckingham-palace-announces/" target="_blank"> Queen Elizabeth II</a>. Clothes were slim-cut and slim-fitting, with long-line skirts and body-hugging trousers, as well as dresses that dragged the eye down. This seemed to be about elongating, but done via lace-trimmed house coats, almost see-through pencil skirts and colourful silk skirts, slashed to the upper thigh. In colours starting in vaguely office grey, before shifting to dark olive, deep orange and a burnt-looking red, there were pieces in which the pigment crumbled away before reaching the edge. An example of that was a beautifully simple slip dress in black on cream that seemed to be made by wrapping a length of cloth around the body. Best of all, the gap left between the colour and the edge of fabric became a decorative element that framed the neck hem and slits at the leg. As with all things Prada it was subversive and exquisitely handled. In contrast, at Moschino, America designer Jeremy Scott — who is never one to dwell on the darker side of life — seized one of the main concerns of the day: inflation. He quite literally created a blow-up show. A clear nod to the 1980s, all outfits incorporated some sort of inflatable element — from a tidy, fitted dress with blow-up collar and hems, to boater hats that were topped with little rubber rings that matched in colour to the look. A snappy little pink mini dress, worn by the newly married model Nora Attal, came with a matching rubber ring around the waist and a clutch shaped like an inflatable mattress. Another dress in pink looked like it was actually made out of rubber, and featured blow up bows and ribbons around the hem. Continuing the trend, Scott dressed one model in balloons that spelled out "party", while another wore a dress seemingly made out of a child's paddling pool, complete with blow-up animal rings.
