The ecstatic energy from the crowd outside of the Prada show this afternoon in Milan Fashion Week was misplaced—and not because there wasn’t a spectacle. At the entrance to the runway space inside the Fondazione Prada, giant crowds of beaming young fans stood behind barriers screaming for musician Enhypen, others for Kylie Jenner and Rosalia. Inside, the front row was packed with even more celebrities, including Emma Watson, Ayo Edebiri, and the first National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.
There was plenty to ogle, plenty to Google, and plenty to post about. As the lights dimmed around the audience and the pounding music began, a clear slime began to drip from the middle of the ceiling as sticky social media bait. But then, the show actually started. The first look made its way down a soft blush-colored runway: a deliciously simple belted shorts suit with a swath of printed fabric at the neck, which the collection notes named “a fragment of a dress.”
Suddenly everything else fell away. The audience forgot about Jenner kids and K-Pop stars and focused on the pieces—which demanded attention, not because they were flashy or overly styled but precisely the opposite. They were masterfully and extraordinarily easy.
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons delivered a collection that was, as Mrs. Prada explained to a crowd backstage after the show, all about “beautiful clothes for today.” Indeed they fulfilled that brief, and more. The pieces were familiar and stylish, with utilitarian touches of workwear in hand-treated cotton and patinated jackets, things that look like they’d been excavated from somewhere in the past, dug up and worn again perfectly in the now.
There was “decoration,” a word also used by Mrs. Prada post-show, in the crystal embroidery on kits and soft organza fabric that flew like delicate capes from behind a trio of pastel-hued dresses. The Prada logo was embroidered to those dresses too, under the organza, barely visible to the eye.
And that was really the purpose here: a regrounding of our sense of what it means to get dressed, sans designer signets and TikTok-able prints and flourishes. These were not Prada lewks, but Prada looks.
Masculine and feminine came together seamlessly, as did old and new. Nothing felt forced—including the partnership between the designers. At the moment, many designers have taken a very literal approach to reviving their own archive, or their house’s. This season, Prada and Simons thoughtfully looked back to Mario Prada, grandfather of Miuccia and co-founder of the brand. Reviving one of his original designs from 1913, they’ve introduced a new evening bag featuring a clasp sculpted in the shape of a mythological figure. Instead of its original silk moire fabrication, this version is made with re-nylon and nappa leather.
The show also celebrated Mrs. Prada’s longtime collaborator Fabio Zambernardi, who has been design director for Miu Miu and Prada since November 2002. After the models did their final lap and the designers came out to take a bow, Zambernardi joined them, and received a standing ovation from many guests in the audience—as well as a hug from both Prada and Simons.
With this collection, Prada and Simons did something that everyone wants and few designers have achieved: They created a thoughtful, personal middle ground for dressing, a style sensibility tucked somewhere in between quiet luxury and loud labels. How fantastic it was to feel inspired by giant, subtly distressed outerwear thrown casually over a red fringe skirt, wool shorts, and a cashmere polo. How magical to find joy in a grommet bedazzled jumper and a poplin shirt with printed fringe.
The last look really said it all: a monochromatic black wool suit, the jacket of which came tucked into the high-waist trouser. The simple styling trick made the audience look closer and think bigger about the things we wear out into the world. The collection started a conversation, one that will continue to be had long after the influencers and megastars left through the back entrance, and one decidedly worthy of a commotion in the streets. It was apt for Mrs. Prada to remark post-show, “Let’s talk about clothes.” We’re all ears.
Prada Spring/Summer 2024
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