September 26, 2025 |
“There is the license to combine different elements, to compose, and there is also a physical liberation, moving away from fashion as a sculptural imposition on the body of a woman. We shifted into the opposite – physical emancipation, but also freedom as a state of mind,” said Raf Simons. That meant taking familiar pieces but making them strange. Uniform looks (the heart and soul of Prada) were worn with jewels, ladylike bags and opera gloves. Mrs Prada spoke of a “useless bra” – a loose draped bandeau of fabric that hung over the breasts offering minimal coverage and zero support. The big talking point was a skirt, that could be confused for an elongated vest dress because it hung not from a waistband but from long shoulder straps. This collection was about strange fits and wearing clothes in unexpected, surprising or provocative ways. Rules? You make your own.
The show exploded into strangeness with oversized satin shifts layered over bubble-hemmed skirts. Skirts were collaged with opposing elements – frills, gathers, flou – all in different fabrications, all in one garment.
“Pieces of beauty, pieces of fabric,” said Mrs Prada of the willfully odd compositions. There was an energy to it as the co-designers composed on the body, making as they put it “recompositions of a new elegance”.
“Inevitably, when we create, we think about the world around us,” said Mrs Prada. “The future is unknown. This collection is about reacting to the uncertain – clothes that can shift, change, adapt. In the combination of the different elements, in this idea of composition, there is a choice and freedom, authority and agency for the woman wearing them. It is fashion that is connected inherently to the world, with a meaning and usefulness. How to face the world, and how to survive.”
As well as reinventing the skirt in a radical way, this was a virtuoso display of fashion attitude, a quality born of self belief and defiance. Very Prada.
Photography courtesy of Prada.
