A look back at Prada spring 2014 jewelry–and the bracelets that shaped it.
The year was 2014, and the jewelry on the runways was exceptional. Particularly at Prada, where a cadre of art world feminist babes patrolled the catwalk in gym inspired dresses covered in crystals, coats decked out in mural-like faces of women, feather crowns and sequin bras. “I want to inspire women to struggle,” Miuccia Prada famously said backstage after the show. All very Old Prada-esque, with a sea of vibrant colors, off-kilter prints and witty references to art and pop culture. But look a little bit closer and you’ll see the star of the show: deep within the core of the collection and everything it represents are some very serious bracelets that are like nothing else on earth.
Prada spring 2014 jewelry was all about the art of the arm stack. And what an arm stack it was. Think: Layered up in reigning over-the-top maximalism and chaos. Big, chunky, Saffiano leather cuffs in yellow, pink, red and blue were embellished with midcentury, 1940s retro atomic aesthetic style crystals on white metal. These bracelets are so large, they themselves look like mystical creatures. They take inspiration from the big, bold, beautiful gold jewelry of the 1940s (think: tank bracelets and rings, visible wearable savings that women could keep and wear in times of major volatility) and completely flip the script on everything.
Layered with those aforementioned cuffs were small, colorfully striped elastic bracelets topped off with long feathers or single, wide crystals. They messily piled on top of the giant cuffs, rejecting the perfection of early curated Instagram aesthetics re: “arm parties” a la Man Repeller.
Paired with lush furs, high tennis socks, and Prada’s take on the humble Tevas, the Prada spring 2014 jewelry is a lesson in the soothing and wonderfully weird feeling of wearing jewelry that screams personality.
The big, colorful monster-style bracelets are extremely hard to come by these days. However, the more heavily produced, classic cuffs featuring smaller dimensions and white rhinestones (still chic) from this collection are pretty easy to find on the secondhand market for modest prices here, here and here.
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