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76PRADAEver since she kicked things off with black nylon padded rainwear, Miuccia Prada has lent a quirky, cool femininityto her label—and led a not-so-quiet revolution in what women want to wear. Now she’s applying those same signaturesto layers of glowing fluorescent workwear. ABOVE, 1994: Utilitarian nylon makes for a rhapsody in black.OPPOSITE: Model Maartje Verhoef in a Prada jacket ($1,720), skirt, hat, and sunglasses; select Prada stores.``````decal, a laurel wreath—via Karl Lagerfeld’s imagination.(Lagerfeld’s Chanel remains, after nearly four decades ofreinvention, House Zero for the art of self-referencing.)By sampling and remixing the past with the stylistichallmarks of the present—streetwear, logomania, genderfluidity, and athleticism, for starters—these designers andothers (Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce; Antho-ny Vaccarello at Saint Laurent; Kenzo’s Carol Lim andHumberto Leon) are making sense of right now. Witnesswhat Demna Gvasalia is doing at Balenciaga: The archi-tectural beauty of Cristóbal Balenciaga has been given asidewalk slouch in the form of voluminous multilayeredparkas that echo the shape of the house’s iconic fiftieshaute couture opera coats. “Putting Balenciaga’s aestheticinto a present-day context is a very important challenge,”says Gvasalia, “because the question of brand identity ismore relevant than ever.”``````ashion’s newest game: seeing if youcan put a date on Miuccia Prada’sreferences. Recent collectionshave mixed everything from herearly minimalist nylon pieces tomid-nineties geek-chic prints. Ver-sace, meanwhile, couldn’t be moreVersace. Or Gucci more Gucci. OrChanel more—you get the idea.Fashion’s best-known names havebeen exploring their signatures—the visual cues that define their identity—like never before.The baroque splendor of the late Gianni Versace’s gildedextravagance? These days it’s streamlined by his sister, Do-natella, into everything from draped and fringed cocktailianato treadmill-friendly sneakers. The instantly recognizableChanel double-C logo? Forever reinvented—as a surfboard## FBRUCE WEBER