It takes a fiendish fashion genius to turn a metallic sock into a feminist cri de coeur, but Miuccia Prada has that kind of mind. After an eyeball challenging show that once more flipped fashion on its head, she explained how she'd taken all the elements women can't normally wear "without being laughed at, and tried to make them more acceptable".

IN PICTURES: Prada spring/summer 2013

Those elements included pale pink and flowers - both plastic and appliquéd silk or wool - and Mrs Prada's claim that they're risible will come as news to millions of women who wear them, particularly perhaps in Japan, where there's a deeply embedded heritage of women looking, talking and dressing in a cutesy fashion.

Interestingly, Prada said she hadn't realised just how Japanese-inspired the collection was until it was finished - although many of the pieces, including satin kimono wraps, had been given names like Mikado. The shoes - wedge sandals worn with zip up metallic socks - were geisha like, as were the models' red lips and slept-in hair.

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They were some of the most intriguingly odd-looking shoes we've seen since platforms first came into fashion. "I wanted height, but for them also to be completely flat, " she said. You can't get flatter than a sock-boot, and there were those too, complete with defined toes. They were even odder.

Together with the skinny satin skirts, the origami folded satin tops (worn with sugar almond coloured satin cycling shorts) and boxy fur coats, all of it embellished with naive flowers, it added up to a punk assault on Hello Kitty.

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There was plenty of black too. Of course there was, now that we've all got our heads around colours. It's precisely Prada's counter-intuitive thinking that has the fashion world at her feet (not metallic socks for her: she was wearing classic brown sandals). It works commercially too. Prada posts its end of year results next week, but for the first half of 2012, sales in Asia were up 36.5 per cent and 21 per cent in cash-strapped Italy, with shares in the company up 50 per cent.

Via: Milan Fashion Week: Prada spring/summer 2013