Meanwhile...back in Saugus...

I was a month ago old (blah, blah) when I learned about Prada Marfa.  What's Prada Marfa, Chris, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  Prada Marfa was/is a permanent ART installation in the Texas desert, somewhere on the outskirts of Valentine, which is in the far west of the state, nowhere near any of the major Texas cities.  It was created in 2005 by two artists...oh, here's the thumbnail:

I haven't really delved into the story of this artwork.  Is it supposed to be some kind of comment on the emptiness of consumerism?  Is it a freestanding-free publicity 3-D billboard for the brand?  Is it both?  I don't know.  I like the idea of allowing it to deteriorate naturally; but I can't believe that it hasn't been vandalized or robbed by now; or the signage torn off.  I also can't believe that it's not being "curated" in some way.  It looks to be in amazing shape after 20 years.  And that brings us to Karla's Shoes.  What's Karla's Shoes, Chris, you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.
Karla's Shoes was a shoe store, natch, that sat on Route 1 in Saugus, Massachusetts for many years; from perhaps the late 70's to the early 90's or later.  It was housed in an actual house.  A house that had somehow managed to be not torn down when they put the major artery through the town.  There was also a salon there, called Denise's.  Here is a picture of the structure after it had closed but before it really started to deteriorate:

Karla's/Denise's sat in a very strange spot in Saugus.  It was sort of situated smack in the middle of an ON/OFF ramp with difficult access to parking.  It was like, unless it was your destination, you weren't going to pop in for a spontaneous perusal because you already would've passed it.  Now, I love shoes, and I lived in Saugus, grew up there, in fact.  But I have never set foot inside the building.  I distinctly got the vibe that it was a woman's shoe store, so I never made the effort.  In fact, I never knew anybody who had ever been there; either at the shoe store or the beauty salon.
So, let's fast forward, thirty, forty years.  The building still stands and it has even further deteriorated; but what's this?  What's this mysterious signage that has appeared on the building recently?  This signage that looks startlingly familiar?

Curiouser and curiouser!

Nobody in Saugus seems to know how this sign got there.  A prank?  I don't know.  That's a pretty precision prank. The work of sophisticates, clearly.  The logo is perfect.  The fonts are perfect.  The placement of the sign seems to be uncannily geometric; as though precise measurements were taken before it was hung.  The distance of the sign from the edge of each window looks as though a metric ruler was used.  Certainly, this could not be the home of a future Prada boutique, could it?  Well, the demographics of the area have changed since Karla's shoes went into business.  People who can ostensibly afford Prada now live in the area.  And what of the Prada aesthetic?

Have vampires arrived in Saugus?!!?

Clearly, in 2012ish, Prada was going for a vampire look.  I mean even without Gary Oldman and always vampire adjacent Willem Dafoe, the Dracula thing is on full display here, right down to the coat piercing dagger(!) pins on the garments.  What's that all about?  Well, I'll tell you one thing Prada isn't about, at least for men, is comfort.  Everything is fitted for pipe-cleaner built gents.  And that looks great and all in an ad; but try wearing it.  And it has a shelf life for about 6 months.  Remember a couple of years ago when everyone was pushing those super slim suits?  The ones that were so fitted it didn't appear that you could bend your legs and arms very far?

That suit from a mid-level designer label is going to set you back about three grand.  I'm sorry, that guy is skinny; but he still looks terrible.  Does he not look like he ran his suit through a washer and dryer and it shrunk?  Or that he's trying to squeeze himself into something from the boys department?  Prada insists on this look for men and they hire big Stars to do the ads.  But I would argue that even these brilliant actors can't pull off reasonable facsimiles of comfort.  Here's Christoph Waltz looking like he just received an Austro-Atomic Wedgie:

Or how about Harvey Keitel looking like he'd like to be wearing anything other than what he has on:

Wait...didn't he play a vampire once?

Now, don't get me wrong.  I think Prada is a great brand.  I can't afford it; but I think it's great.  Italian menswear is kind of like Italian Pizza--or any pizza--even when it's not so good, it's still pretty good.  If I had that kind of lucre to throw around and I was to buy Prada, I'm sure I would get some basic pieces.  Classics that I would have and could wear anytime for as long as I continue to be around.  LIke, this 'frinstance:

And only 10,000.00 dollars!  This one also caught my eye:

Cuppla probs with this one though.  Even though it's a bargain at only $7,600.00 it contains angora.  I've always liked fur.  It is undeniably luxurious.  Fuzzy, fluffy, hairy garments have always intrigued me.  I went through a period where I was wearing a lot of mohair and alpaca and so on.  Some of my old coats had/have fur collars.  I started seeking out angora because I assumed it was a cruelty free fur.  It is not.  And although Prada claims they no longer use fur in the creation of their garments, this angora blend is currently on their webpage.  Angora rabbits are not killed for their fur; but it is taken from them often violently and with no regard to their suffering.  I gave my angora Kangol caps to Goodwill when I learned of this.

In perusing their website, I found this spectacular coat:

Now, they're calling this a "leather" coat; yes, the leather, technically of a lamb. But it's "broadtail" lamb and I would argue that this is a true fur coat.  But doesn't Prada claim they don't use "fur"?  And you don't even want to know how they obtain "broadtail" fur.  It's beyond disturbing.  And yet, here it is.  And so affordable!

Methinks PRADA is literally trying to pull the wool over my eyes.  You know, we eat animals.  Cows, deer, lamb.  If we're going to do that; kill the animal for it's meat, then use every part of the animal.  Vintage fur, I feel is okay.  Respect the animal's sacrifice and take care of the garment until it disintegrates.  But in 2024, we should not be producing brand new broadtail coats.  No one is eating the lambs that went to make this garment.  So Prada, either just make fur garments or don't.  Don't try and trick people.
Here are some other Prada items I would buy, if say, someone gave me a loaded Prada gift card:

Now, yes, I will admit that if I'm going to pay $1,350.00 for a short sleeve shirt-jac, I'm going to make damn sure it's branded with the Prada logo, to let people know just that.  Not that I'm a status seeker/reeker.  But in this case, I would be. I mean not everything.  Like that camel cashmere cardigan.  That is noice!  Let's find out what they want for it...
A mere $4,800.00.
​The Prada logo is cool, but it's a bit heavy on the text. I mean, the name and the town and the founding date and the inverted pyramid?  And the coat of arms?  Pick two Prada!

And I'm sorry; but please STOP Prada.  Please all of you stop.  You are not going to get men to carry ladies handbags and short handled purses.  It's not going to happen.  It doesn't and will never look right.  Satchels, messenger bags, cross body bags, duffels; even fanny packs.  Fine.  But dainty handbags and shoulder bags.  No.  Stop trying to make Man-Clutch happen.

But we stray of course...
So let's get back to "Prada Saugus" in Part 2 of this blog: PRADA SAUGUS: Part 2

​CFR   8/6/24