Prada Autumn/Winter 2012-13 Milan Fashion Week

“It’s always fascinating to see what Miuccia does – and always challenging to work out what all her inspirations have been. She does this pendulum swing from season to season and with the spring collection being so pretty and light, this was much more austere – it almost had a religious feel to it at times,” said Alexandra Shulman afterwards.

THE same geometric mosaic patterns adorned the carpeted catwalk at Prada tonight as we saw for the men’s show in January. This time it was purple and it didn’t fill with Hollywood stars as per the men's show – well, they are preparing for the Oscars on Sunday night.

If there can be a single fashion house that can be credited with dictating trends every season, Prada is it – and next season Mrs Miuccia has firstly cast black as secure on the fashion agenda for next winter, and secondly decreed that if you don’t want to wear black you can smother yourself with mosaic prints in mismatching colours from head to toe. And both options carry with them plenty of jewels to match.

It might sound simple but Prada never is and there’s always a bit of humour in the mix. So after a run of high collared black cashmere coats glittering with geometrically arranged stones, there were trouser suits of orange, blue, purple and black and white prints whose jackets were worn belted and long over the hips while the trousers were turned up, short of the ankles to show off sculpted Mary Janes or brogues that were worn inside coloured rubber over shoes. Despite the seriousness of the tailoring, they had a clownish effect, while large, boxy, glossy handbags kept our minds very much on the point. Later they shrank to just over iPhone size and were just as good.