Body Required.

These clothes were meant for curves.

Mama Miuccia, I (and my hips, boobs, and belly) would personally like to thank you. You did something unprecedented today. Your whole entire collection was meant for a body like mine, one that curves and fills fabric and makes boys dream of milk maids. For the first time on any runway I've seen, the skinny models looked like bags of bones playing dress up while the ones with some body to them looked divine and luscious and ripe.

Stickly looked sickly on the Prada runway.

I'm proud of my curves (now) and I know this next statement might spark some fires, but here goes. While I've always championed the fuller figure, I've had to agree that the clothes most designers make look better on rail thin bodies. I've seen various designers dabble in sending a more voluptuous girl down their catwalk among the petite things, and they've looked out of place, and awkward. Not always, mind you, but most of the time. The difference in Prada's Fall 2010 show is that the skinny things look out of place and awkward, proving a long standing belief: It's in the cut of the clothes. Skinny doesn't automatically mean perfect for any outfit--quite the contrary. In these voluptuous pieces the too thin look deflated and lacking. Thick fabrics, belted, A-line silhouettes, and '50s/'60s shapes are meant for someone with a bit more to them, and it showed.

These thick knits would look better on a thick body...calling Ms. Hendricks!

I don't want to make naturally skinny girls feel badly about their bodies at all, but.... Yay! It just feels so good to have an entire show of victory for fullness. The truth is that most of the young things on the runway are skinny because they are 15, or they subsist on smoke and caffeine.

Be proud of your body. Dress it up pretty and proud. If you don't know how, Mama Miuccia will help you!

Fly Away Home.

Prada's connection to the art world has always been strong and meaningful. Their matriarch, Ms. Miuccia, is a patroness of many forms of visual art, from architecture and interactive design to photography, sculpture, and now film. The latest PR from Prada is a film by Chinese artist Yang Fudong. It's a black and white short film featuring Prada's meshy menswear from Spring 2010 and a high wire tight rope and a few geishas and some uselessly mesh umbrellas falling. All that makes for a surreal, fluid presentation where the norms of life take a backseat to pretty pictures, and the long shots are choreographed so that peoples' entrances and exits of the frame are as entrancing as a ballet.

Pussies, Swallows, and Naked Ladies.

Miu Miu's Spring 2010 patterns were Miuccia Prada's playful salute to all things Freudian. One question...where are the cigars?

Bits of photos from The New York Times website.

Beach Scene.

Miuccia Prada's Spring/Summer 2010 collection was all cut seams and raw hems at first.

The grayish black coats, pants, shorts, and tops that meandered down the black and white runway were pressed flat, with crisp pleats and a sheen. The shapes were deceptively simple in their flatness, giving the clothes a stiff character, but then the backs of the garments slightly draped or jetted away from the models' bodies.

By using circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, and the occasional flourish of a twist, Prada eschewed the overwhelming trend towards flouncy drapery and frilly fuss that's been on every catwalk of late. Then, amidst the heavy, shiny grays a beach scene emerged.

Prints of a hazy, faded, seaside setting relieved the darkness and gave the clothes a pop of paradise. Yet, the sulfurous yellow and smoggy, smoke-colored washes on the prints either aged the scene, making it look like a distant memory, or took some of the carefree levity out of the usual beach ephemera. The blankets, umbrellas, sunbathers, and palm trees are rendered in washed out hues. Prada's prints say maybe we can find a bright landscape again once the clouds pass; but, if they don't pass, then we'll have to make due. We'll have to paint our pouts a bright red hue, muss our hair, and just find a new cool.

The crystal pieces, I'm sure, were much more effective in person. But even without the shimmer and dazzling shine of the chandelier-like wares in the photos, you can tell that the bejeweled shift dresses and bedazzled separates were intended to offer clear light. A sparkly refresher after a hazy sunset.

LOVES IT.

Photos from SHOWstudio.

Fashion Week Is Coming! Fashion Week Is Coming!

It was the night before New York Fashion Week started, and all through the house... Anna was so effing excited!

That's me, being effing excited!

I love this shot from the New York Times today of the pre-show start photo shoot by Patrick Demarchelier in front of the Bryant Park tents. It juices me up for the festivities. Of course, you can count on I Want To Wear It. to bring you all of the up to the minute coverage of all of the fun, feathers, fur, ferocity, fedoras, fans, famousness, Ferraris, and ferrets. All of it. Right here. Starting with tomorrow's huge 5-borough-wide partay hosted by Anna Wintour, Fashion's Night Out.

I'm personally heading over to Opening Ceremony for their block party that will feature the work of my fashion fetishes, The Mulleavy Sisters, as well as Alexander Wang and other designers. But, if you'd rather ogle MK and A, Zac Posen, Victoria Beckham, and ALT, you can head on over to Bergdorf's uptown. Or, get a lip reading by Poppy King the Lipstick Queen at Barneys, or you can see a Little Red Riding Hood recreation put together by Grace Coddington at Prada. Oh dear, if only I could clone myself a couple Annas. There's so much to do! Listen, tomorrow you will be golden no matter where you are! It's gonna be a blast. You should wear good shoes (walkable people, no sky high stilettos!) and be prepared to make the rounds. I can't wait!

Check out the official Fashion's Night Out schedule here.

Wade Through It.

I think the reason that my interest in the endless parade of catwalk shows spanning the globe faded early this season is because in the face of the world-at-large's too little, it's just too much. Not only is the endless coverage too much information period, but the obvious '80's re-hash that is coming again and again down the runways is just too much to look at. Huge shoulders, big hair, shine, tight, bigger, bigger, more, more. It all makes my head want to explode, and the state of current affairs (more and more layoffs, food lines, homeless moving into my A train) is enough mind/anxiety spark and ignition to keep the explosions coming without being reminded that there is more stuff being made than anyone will buy or need for more money than anyone will have. It makes me nervous. It makes me a little nauseated, kind of like when I go to Costco in the 'burbs and everyone and everything is huge. Too much stuff. Overload. Like a levee-broken-overflowing-flooded-river of too much. Enter Miuccia Prada and her waders to get you through to the other side.

Miuccia is the smart girl's guide to fashion. She puts ideas into her clothes and they barely matter unless you want them to, and then they matter more than you realize at the time. Her last season's collection, with its rumpled, post-tryst aesthetic, was a romantic ode to passionate sex in a hurry. This season's wares are a lot more put together. Earth comes to town amongst the intergalactic shows that have been catwalking all around Miuccia this season. Her colors are earthy: understated mud/olive/turmeric/rusted ruby/horse brown. I can almost smell their mineral makeup. The fabrics are stiff and strong, but touchable: felted wool, felt, wool, leather, or soft--like fur, velvet, and knits. Not pleather, not spandex, not lame. The shapes of things make sense for a woman's body. There are great curving collars finally drawn in at the waist (flattering), deep plunges at the neckline (feminine), and knee length hem lines (flirty). Prada's mature sexuality is always a high point, never cheap, never remotely tramped-up, it sneaks in through practical elements. Bright slashes of red peek from behind gray flannel dresses, the same scarlet becomes a smart coatdress, the deep plushness of the velvet and fur pieces beg to be pet. Prada makes you want to look there, she makes you want to touch. The feminine sparkle of the evening clothes, smartly embellished leather and gray felt, brilliantly adds a little ethereal to the solidness of the collection.

Then there are those waders. Mmmmm. Higher than thigh high leather fisherman's gear. A protective element. Masculine, but so alluring. Some are less high, but comfortably layered over thick socks and held up by straps. A clear imperative for the Prada woman to lift herself up by her bootstraps. Something about them is so visually appealing. I love when an article of clothing has the potential to separate the girls from the women. It will take something to pull those things up and also pull them off. Prada is smart fashion. It is sexy but meaningful, well only if you want to look for meaning. Otherwise, it's just gorgeous. End of story.

Photos from The New York Times and WWD.com. Click images for more information.