We don't need another hero.... We don't need to know the way know the way home

... What we want is life beyond the Thunderdome.

So sang Tina Turner in Mad Max 3 in 1985. I remember watching the movie at the Greater Union Cinemas on Russell Street.

I had just turned thirteen. It was school holidays. My friend Wayne de Kretser had invited me to go and see the film with him.

There was I. Year eight at school. Movies with a friend and my sister. Deep down, the whole
post-apocalyptic theme took over and made me feel rather uncomfortable. After all, this was the mid 1980s, threat of Nuclear War was always at the foremost thought.

No matter where we turned. The East was unfavourable. The West was on heightened alert. Thatcherism and Reaganism were the order of the day.

Harriet Hubbard-Ayer still existed on the Australian market. Arden and Rubinstein still maintained their own standing, so to speak.

Anyway, back from my meandering direction (talk about a "tangent") - I was there watching a movie that made me feel uncomfortable.

Nearly three decades later, I was watching the Fall-Winter 2012 collection by PRADA.

I was struck by many thoughts. George -and-Mildred-meets-mad-Max-3- with a dash of 70s wallpaper thrown in.

Although the maquillage has been at best described as Avatar-inspired. It is a most powerful collection to review. To view. To enjoy.

The jury is still out with me. I watch it, and still feel scared. I also revel in the ability of this collection to restore my sense of youth. A sense of spirit and discovery that leaves me feeling younger and reborn. A collection that challenges my cerebral comfort zones.

Ultimately, I am totally honest in saying that I love the fact that again, as always. Miuccia takes the "ho-hum" and turns the pedestrian into the bastion of chic.

How does she do it, and still find time to slide from her office, into a world of homemade pasta? Oh, and yes... Whilst wearing a skirt.

How, indeed. I ask you.

Spare a thought for the others out there, in the land of Moda.

As I put finger to keyboard, the laboratory of the Paris Couture is taking place. Exploding into the visual world of the consumer. The sybarite. The connoisseur. The skeptic. The neophyte. The humble. The interested, and above all, the concerned.

Raf Simons' debut at the August Maison Dior will leave us all (hopefully) wanting more.

Can Jil Sander make things work at her eponymous label, where she has not been visible for many a season?

Only time will tell.

Until then.

Stay couture-loving. Stay chic. Never compromise on humility. Be original. Love beauty. Scorn dishonesty. Celebrate individuality.

And, ALWAYS LOVE PRADA... No matter what may be going through our minds.

My my my... Miuccia.

Until next time. Until the next place. You never know what Simon will do, after all, it is I who says.

Until then, bisous.

Gougou, x.