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MILAN - The more I think about Miuccia Prada's spring men's show here in June, the more I think it's just viciously dead-on.

Ms. Prada's show featured full-cut suits and silk tropical prints, shown on male and female models, against a painted backdrop of jungle fronds disturbed by a helicopter rotor. The cliches of trouble, even possible death, are stamped all over the place: the exotic landscape, the innocent young people, the hint of an attack.

Her idea was to question the notion of paradise, and to show that, beneath the hype, the reality is quite pessimistic. In fact, people are often unhappy and disconnected from tradition. Hence the models were never shown in pairs.

Nonetheless, the audience is clinging to cliches of its own, based on obsolete cultural artifacts, like pre-World War II Hawaii. And it's not as if the clothes are that distinctive. In fact, a '40s pinstriped suit - any suit nowadays - safely qualifies as obsolete.

Some of us rushed to greet her saying: "Nostalgia," "romance."

"Romance?" Ms. Prada said to me, frowning. "No, it's menacing."

Ms. Prada has said in the past she admires the work of Michel Houellebecq, whose novel, "Platform," is set amid Thailand's sex tourism industry. In all probability it influenced her thinking. Many critics find Mr. Houellebecq's view of human beings sour, but he understands their obsession with products and labels, as well as youth and aspiration, and the unremitting tide of schlock it produces. For Ms. Prada, it must be a pleasure to think about fashion in this way, but it also must make her question her own role in feeding the behavior.

Around Milan, most of the other houses were not taking any chances. They used the new tech speak, combined with words like "savoir-faire" and "tradition," to hype all manner of sports and fancy utility apparel. This was true of Salvatore Ferragamo, Neil Barrett and Calvin Klein.

Jil Sander's man seemed conceived as an accidental tourist in his plain poplin shirt and big, full-cut shorts with brogues and black socks.

Initially, I wasn't strongly impressed by her collection; I wasn't moved emotionally. But that's my weakness. Much of the new fashion is more concerned with objective properties, like shape and the potential for color.

Emerging in other collections were efforts to modernize the suit. The excellence of Stefano Pilati's new line for Ermenegildo Zegna was based on subtle colors and breaking up the suit with trousers in a slightly contrasting pattern.

Could Giorgio Armani be more unscripted? This was a nimble performance, shifting from close-fitting jackets in linen or blue chambray to sophisticated checks and other grown-up separates in rosy beige. My wish is that he wouldn't be so chivalrous toward women and let them have something similarly free.

Missoni, too, looked fresh, heightened by West African colors and marvelous knit jackets. At Gucci, Frida Giannini struck twice - with well-done sportswear and a splurge of classic floral prints mixed in summer suits. And whether or not Tomas Maier meant to evoke a '50s jazz club look at Bottega Veneta, with gray short-jacketed suits, the style stood out for being mature.

But be honest: does fashion care about such an individual? And does it seek to isolate him still further? The answer is yes. "The thing we value most of all is youth," Mr. Houellebecq has said, "which means that life automatically becomes depressing, because it consists, on the whole, of getting old."

The New York Times

(China Daily 07/07/2013 page10)