Milan Fashion Week: Brands back ‘Time for change’

“Time for Change” has been a dominant catchphrase, one the fashion world can expect to see branded across sweatshirts, waistbands and accessories next autumn and winter.

For some, the expression means back to roots. Others intend it as a call for respect. The overall implication seems to be a rejection of the status quo.

Naturally, Miuccia Prada is the outlier. Prada eschewed words because they have become empty. Where they appeared on prints in her new looks, words were meaningless.

The second day of Milan Fashion Week of mostly menswear previews for autumn/winter 2018/19 opened with youthful designers focused on urban street wear that tries to capture the zeitgeist of millennial consumers.

Here are some highlights from Sunday’s shows, including Prada, Dirk Bikkembergs, MSGM and DSquared2:

Prada’s strange packages

In challenging times, it is not unusual to seek the familiar. For Miuccia Prada, there is comfort in black nylon.

The designer generously uses her favoured material in her pieces for the next cold weather season, padding them and applying them in protective layers.

The boxy shapes for men and women appear to conceal the wearer in a unisex vein, but it is all for nothing: Identity badges suggested a form of surveillance in the runway scenario. That sense of excessive control transforms into a political statement once the garments are on the rack and available to consumers.