'It was about the strength of women,' Miuccia Prada said after her show, which included girlish coats encrusted with jewels and paillettes as trompe l'oeil bras and swirls, as well as specially commissioned murals.

'Women who are strong, visible, who are fighters,' she continued. 'I want to encourage them to be out there.'

Prada's mission to blend feminism with fashion has a long history. Her success in that field lies in her unique ability to blend flattering and womanly trend-setting styles with intellectual statements about the very body they sit on. Hence the sporty details for spring - alongside the sober wool palette, and the paillettes, were hockey socks, rubber shoes and ribbed sportswear separates.

'I wanted to do whatever I could with my clothes,' she said, referring to the current generation of what she called 'impressive women'. Of the heavy-duty embellishment, she shrugged and smiled: 'if people are looking at women perhaps they will listen, too.'

The pieces were eye-catching to say the least: deliberately sludgy khaki green and midnight blue wool bustier dresses and keyhole-front shifts plastered with murals created by the likes of Jeanne Detallante and El Mac felt at once schoolgirl prim but art college edgy.

Those artists, working as part of a new commission called 'In the Heart of the Multitude', provided their take on modern womanhood. Prada explained she placed them on the front panels of skirts and dresses because she didn't want to just create your average graphic tee.

'I never want to be influenced by art,' she said. 'I want to stick to my roots as a fashion designer.'

She has always managed that singularity. The audience were reminded of her impeccable archive of witty women and anti-sexy surrealism when she stepped out in a feathered black coat from her autumn 2007 collection - that range changed the way women dress currently and still reverberates along the fashion food chain, just like the lipstick skirts of spring 2000, the nylon bags of the 90s. The list goes on.

The Prada-art link-up made for a fascinating collection, but it is Prada herself who makes wearing clothes am art-form.