Prada brings street art to Milan catwalks

Prada brought a dose of hipness to Milan Fashion Week on Thursday with a collection that mixed prints inspired by street art murals with a sporty style.

Designer Miuccia Prada brought in young graffiti artists and illustrators to decorate the fashion house's Milan showroom and took her cue from them.

The collection for the spring and summer of next year was an eclectic one, mixing ankle warmers, rhinestone-covered bustiers and jarring oranges and greens.

There was some more traditional elegance too with cocktail dresses decorated in sprays of gems, winding their way around the figure like mountain streams.

The artists who painted their murals directly in the showroom were asked to treat themes of "femininity, representation, power and multiplicity".

"The women on the walls represent the multiplicity of guises that women assume in the course of a day, or a lifetime," the fashion house explained in a booklet.

It also said the catwalk was surfaced with industrial rubber "as a reference to the urban street" and the audience was seated on a central island watching the models strutting around them.