Prada Spring 2011 Goes Bananas. Chiquita Bananas.

Prada Spring 2011 the cheat sheet:

- blindingly bright neons (orange, highlighter green, hot pink)
- Latin flair
- stripes
- orthopedic/futuristic platform and wedge sneakers
- tight chignons with ’20s-style finger waves
- striped fur tails (stoles?) dipped in neon, held like clutches

Prada Spring 2011, the unabridged version:
Leave it to Miuccia Prada to say fuck it to this season’s trend of all-white show openers. The first look out was blindingly bright orange, setting the tone for a neon color palette of hot pink, lime green and fluorescent yellow. While many designers have looked to the ’70s for spring 2011, Prada’s DayGlo color palette was the only thing remotely ’70s-inspired about her show. Instead, she went south to Mexico and Cuba and Brazil and maybe Puerto Rico, too. Form-fitting dresses with drop-waist ruffled hems looked like a modern, tripped-out interpretation of something Anita might wear in West Side Story. Oversized striped sombreros hung down models’ backs. Monkeys, bananas, and the Chiquita banana lady (OK, it wasn’t really her) were printed and embroidered on dresses and tops. And there were hints of the ’20s, too, in the models’ hair, styled in finger waves, and the decadent fur stoles each model carried (though when the stoles are neon and striped like the tail of an acid-tripping Cheshire cat it makes the ’20s reference less linear). It’s hard to pin this collection to any distinct decade because it was so modern and bright and forward-thinking.

In stark contrast to the neon stripes and South American-style embroidery that dominated the runway, the last six looks were simple little black dresses–tent dresses cut low in the back (and some in the front, too) that were so delicate they recalled Andy Warhol’s paper dress, and long-sleeved knee-length lbd’s with prudish ruffled collars.

Anna Dello Russo was wearing a watermelon on her head in the front row [which she also wore to Marc Jacobs] but we wouldn’t be surprised if she goes all out and wears a whole basket of fruit on her head next, Chiquita banana-style, after this show. After all, Miuccia Prada was wearing banana earrings when she came out to take her bow.