029: Ways of Wearing Pt. IV

The dissection of a Prada suit

Several years ago, I had a god-awful job at a company whose dress code was “business formal”, which is cheap-speak for, “You will be reprimanded for wearing anything but a suit that we will not pay for.” I went to the clearance sections at Zara and Banana Republic and bought two black jackets, and purchased two pairs of the Grown Up’s Big Job trousers from Aritzia and called it a day. After I quit my job and sued the company (in that order), those four pieces were shoved into a very dark corner of my closet, along with the Equipment button-downs I wore them with. For some time, I couldn’t stand to look at even Fun Suits, and might explain why all the button-downs I own are most unserious.

After extensive therapy – my third longest relationship, the first two being my best friend and then husband, in that order – and gaining the ability to look back on a terrible situation and laugh or hardly think of it at all, this opened up room once again to appreciate Suits. When I say Suits, I don’t mean those of the Pant Suit Nation or Goldman Sachs variety, mandated suits. What I’m talking about are Fun Suits: razor-sharp Jil Sander sets, nutty Moschino two-pieces, a twisted matron Prada pair. What makes a suit fun is when it isn’t required, when it veers far from the expectations of the staid status quo. When pressed for time or at a loss, Fun Suits bypass the mental mathematics of putting together an outfit without looking as though you’re about to be yelled at on the trading floor.

As someone who no longer needs to wear suits, I have a decent number of Prada skirt sets; in general I favor skirts over trousers. Earlier, I was thumbing through “Schiaparelli & Prada: Impossible Conversations”, a volume that commemorates the Met’s Spring 2012 Costume Institute exhibition of the same title, and came across a quote from Miuccia Prada on the matter of skirts: “The skirt has always been one of my primary focuses. Everyone knows that you have to be very beautiful from the waist up, and less sophisticated from the waist down. But to me the waist up is more spiritual, more intellectual, while the waist down is more basic, more grounded. It’s about sex. It’s about making love. It’s about life. It’s about giving birth. Basically, below the waist is more connected to the earth.” Well there you have it. Who can argue with that?

I.

Today’s suit in question is from Prada’s Fall 2013 collection, which echoed film noir and Hitchock heroines in the form of wiggle suits, swooping circle skirts, princess coats, and deep side parts, the intense almost performative femininity offset by lug-soled shoes, sunny picnic-blanket Vichy checks swallowed by more moody hues, asymmetric hems of skirts resembling confusion or catastrophe, or both? Somewhere between a circle and a straight line, neither here nor there.

This set miraculously eluded hungry archival Prada shoppers on Poshmark, purchased for a sum total of $300, a ridiculous price for a runway look. Up close and to the touch, the suit is made from Felted Tweed, its scratchy texture is achieved by running the fabric through multiple processes, the first of which involves immersing it in a bath of boiling soap and water (here’s a Harper’s Bazaar article from eleven years ago about how this fabric was developed for this collection). It’s certainly not ideal for anyone seeking sensuality in a suit, but I love its strange stiffness and how such a lady-like silhouette has been cut from an old gentleman’s cloth. On the runway it was styled with a brown suede belt; the suit without accents is quite a look and translates better with a silly pair of heels. I’m (ie, my back) a silly flats sort of girl, and the belt – a multipurpose Prada find – helps break it up a bit. Or maybe it doesn’t and I look like a madcap cousin removed at Balmoral, saying and doing all sorts of lewd things, which I’m also completely alright with.

II & III.

To lighten things up a bit, I decided to take a page right out of the Miuccia Prada playbook: Boring Sweater + Flashy Necklace + Mannish Shoes. The green plastic garland is from Miu Miu’s tropical Spring 2003 collection (anything to grasp onto that summer feeling), and the bright blue and burgundy checkered makeup bag clutch is from the same line as the suit. What I also enjoy about a set is that it can come together as one, but also as separates for when the wheels of creativity aren’t entirely rusted. On the right, I’ve paired the skirt with a Dries Van Noten jacket that has a pale mesh overlay, lending an iridescent sheen to it, from Spring 2016. The loafers are a trusty old pair from G.H. Bass, who have just launched a Harris Tweed collection! With lug soles!!

IV & V.

While reorganizing our coat closet recently (90% mine, 10% his and mine), I realized I had weirdly (“weirdly” my husband put in air quotes) amassed a fair share of coats and jackets in shades of green without having made a conscious choice. A strange coincidence that offers a myriad of ways of wearing as an alternative to the suit jacket. The rain jacket on the left, secondhand as always, is from Miu Miu’s retro Spring 2017 collection, the femme fatale on a much-needed summer holiday, and weirdly goes perfectly with the pair of rubber platformed mary-janes I bought from Marni while in Milan. The forest-silk Prada jacket is from Shop the Story and went straight from the shop to the plane; it’s every so slightly oversized, but I’m at that point in my life where I’m just not as fussed about everything looking just right, as I once used to be.

VI & VII.

If I really have no time at all and all my brain cells have been adequately fried, which is most of the time, I’m taking a page right out of the Tasnim Ahmed playbook: Roomy Black Sweater with a hole near the neckline + Mary-Janes that have taken a world-class beating + the Red Prada bag holding this whole shoddy operation together. To the right, we have a slight alteration to this formula, with the belt making another appearance, this time worn low on the waist, together with Céline heels and a Mugler bag, gifted by a wunderkind of a friend who used to work for the brand. Best worn when giving your former employer a good dressing down.

Until next time!