Why not follow in Mrs Prada’s footsteps?
“This collection, paradoxically, felt like an expression of many of the things Miuccia Prada enjoys, or admires,” wrote Alexander Fury in September last year, in his piece on the Prada S/S19 show for AnOthermag.com. “Uniforms, predominantly – before she began making clothes for herself, she used to wear maid’s and schoolgirl’s uniforms, because she hated everything else out there. There were echoes of them here, as well as the uniforms of class and status, those of the bourgeoisie she has explored time and time again.”
One of Mrs Prada’s favoured schoolgirl tropes, that has been explored in the styling of her collections time and time again, is pairing shoes – a patent mary jane, sky-high clog, or impossibly-clunky pair of bejewelled sandals – with statement socks. For Spring/Summer 2019, the socks on the runway were monochromatic, diaphanous knee-highs, stamped with the Italian house’s triangular logo.
The lightweight mesh knit of these stockings, pictured here, are perfect for teaming with a subtantially architectural heel – take A.W.A.K.E.’s structured, minimalist sandals that were presented as part of Belgian designer Natalia Alaverdian’s fashion week debut, for example. We imagine this look worn with Bottega Veneta’s silver ceramic-coated earrings, by the brand’s new creative director, Daniel Lee, for a grown-up twist on the ‘school uniform’.
Hair: Hirokazu Endo using Bumble & Bumble. Make-up: Mattie White using Lord & Berry. Model: Priscilla Cheseaux at Storm Management. Casting: Troy Casting at D+V Management. Set design: Laura Little. Manicure: Robbie Tomkins at Premier. Photographic assistants: Ellen Egan. Styling assistants: Priyanka Makwana, Sarah Carone, Grace Naef and Antoine Caballero. Set-design assistants: Frank Styles.