Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ latest menswear outing was threaded with what the pair dubbed “savage elegance”. Following their last women’s show, which served as a sartorial middle finger to algorithm banality, the designers continue to be led by instinct instead of an overarching theme. Backstage, Mrs Prada spoke of resisting the influence of artificial intelligence with a philosophy for getting dressed that is spontaneous, passionate and honest – “this is how we move again towards humanity,” she said.
A visual buffet of both eclectic and unlikely combinations – “even if they seem like they’re not supposed to be together,” as Simons put it – began with the show set. Spread across three levels, a giant scaffolding structure was covered in a fuzzy floral carpet designed by Catherine Martin, feeling at once industrial and domestic, all while glazed in nightclub-style lighting.
There was an immediacy to many pairings. Cowboy boots – curled at the toe and in a slew of different hues and patterns, many visibly scuffed – were lodged beneath shrunken cigarette trousers, some cut from silk in purple and fire engine red. The Americana flourishes peppered throughout were subtly cinematic; a skin-tight floral tee, rounded at the neck, joined by narrow, worn-in jeans, echoed River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho.
Throughout, Prada and Simons darted between many design gestures. There was an air of romance to gentle plaids and swollen tux jackets decorated with a single flower at the lapel, while a patchwork leather twinset and boxy suits worn bare-chested unleashed a seductive side to the Prada man. The duo’s radical mix of ideas, whether it was the hoods of parkas being plonked on top of handsome overcoats, or jagged slithers of faux fur that were primitively draped across most outerwear, spoke of a liberating creativity, as Mrs P noted. “Something deeply human”.
Photography courtesy of Prada.
