Youthful Prada cuts a new and sophisticated splendour

Miuccia Prada pioneered the modern ladylike style that has held fashion in thrall for numerous seasons. Last night at the presentation of her spring/summer 2005 collection, the years fell away from her muse to reveal a youthful and more carefree archetype.

Miuccia Prada pioneered the modern ladylike style that has held fashion in thrall for numerous seasons. Last night at the presentation of her spring/summer 2005 collection, the years fell away from her muse to reveal a youthful and more carefree archetype.

Many women - and several fashion designers - will be interested to hear this news. Prada is now one of the most influential designers in the world, and her grown-up tweed skirt suits and schoolmistress blouses have influenced every level of the fashion business, from the high street upwards. Last night, tailored schoolboy shorts, boxy jackets and thigh-skimming crocheted dresses replaced the demure 1950s silhouette of previous seasons.

Shown on the catwalk to a languorous reggae soundtrack, Prada's bucket hats, flat patent leather sandals in primary colours and brooches in the shapes of sailing boats or parrots, lowered the age limit even further. Prada, a political science graduate and aficionado of installation art, has a more thoughtful approach to fashion design than many of her peers in Milan. She is often called avant-garde. But hers is a multimillion-pound brand with a global retail network and she is commercially astute enough to know her target customer.

So, while this latest collection had a youthful air, it was too luxurious for teenagers. Lavish decorative touches, such as peacock feathers splayed across the front of a taffeta dress, or semi-precious stones the size of boiled sweets embroidered onto a satin coat, added sophistication and, no doubt, several zeros to the eventual price tag. These are the kind of opulent and expensive details that simply cannot be translated by the high street chains that will attempt to recreate the Prada look next spring.

Earlier in the day, Missoni, the family-run Italian fashion house that specialises in knitwear woven with bands of bright colour, capitalised on the new trend for stripes. Parallel lines of raspberry, pale orange and coral on cropped cardigans looked particularly sweet.

Knits like these were also proof that the label's founders, the husband-and-wife team Tai and Rosita Missoni, did indeed hit on a classic design back in 1953 when they first began to sell striped shirtdresses knitted in colourful jacquards.

Missoni is an archetypal Italian family business. Angela Missoni, the founders' daughter, took over design duties in 1996, and has placed more of an emphasis on glamorous, figure-enhancing dresses. The signature Missoni patterns have been reinvented over the years to coincide with trends.

During the fashion for neutral-coloured, minimalist design in the 1990s, or in that same decade's downbeat "grunge" style, Missoni's cheery patterns might have seemed out of kilter with the times. But right now, its girlish and happy look fits in perfectly with the flow of fashion's tide.