Oooookaaaaaaay... Well, that's a very good description and I think I understand it. The thing is, all that kind of structural, ironic dressing can be sassy on the catwalk with some willowy model, but on an average-looking middle-aged woman it just looks like someone with bad dress sense. Unless you have the innate style, swagger, panache (and youth) to carry it off, there is a danger in just looking a bit odd, is there not? The bakelite watches, to me, fall into that category. They are very interesting, from a design point of view, but on someone like me they would just look plain ugly. And I don't have the budget, or the inclination, to construct the kind of look where people would understand which way I 'meant it'.
Hang on in there, it's peak Spider Season. In a couple more weeks they'll all be dead or hibernating.
okay first off i have to say that prada is NEVER ironic. nor sassy. prada is not for hipsters. prada does not rely on gimmicks like being ironic or mockingly self conscious or anything like that. prada takes itself seriously. prada is serious business.
secondly you are sooooooo wrong, pep pep, and unfortunately there are a lot of people who think like you. you dont think that fashion is just for the young and thin do you? 16 year olds wearing, say, gucci is a relatively new phenomenon, you know. when miuccia prada started out the average clientele were middle aged, because that was who could afford designer clothing. those are the people designers, in the history of 20th century fashion, have always designed for. and i still feel that that's who prada designs for. if you take, say, this look:
sure it looks great on 20 year old (or whatever) louise pedersen but to me it looks like something that was designed with an older woman in mind. i could easily see a sexy-smart 40 or 50 year old wearing that without looking the slightest bit odd.
now take miuccia prada herself. she's old, a little dumpy, that doesnt stop her from dressing in her designs and looking amazing.
if i saw a woman dressed like that, i would have no end of admiration for her. i would want to know more about her life. i'd want to know where she lives and what she has on her walls and what she does with her days. that's what you should think of the purpose of fashion being as you get older. does it give off emanations of a life well lived?
now imagine her in some bland house dress. she would look like such a frump! i would have no interest in seeing inside her house whatsoever.
the idea that prada on an "average-looking middle-aged woman it just looks like someone with bad dress sense" is something you always hear, but how many average-looking middle aged woman" do you actually see wearing prada? probably not a lot.
as for the bakelite watches, i think it's more about having the right colouring. i dont know, i dont think they're ugly. but then to me, ugly as a consideration has never even crossed my mind, because to me each one is like a little objet d'art and i would feel good about wearing art on me even if other people didnt get it or thought it was ugly.