Prada mode

A unique music echoes through the room. The music of Depeche Mode opens the doors to a mood triggering 90s references. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, the it-couple at the creative helm of Prada, look back to go forward. «This collection is about the history of women, of people, not the history of fashion», Miuccia Prada explained to MFF to describe the winter that draws directly on Prada's Dna and on the 90s, when the Milan-based fashion house emerged and gained fame in international fashion. «I have always said this, but now I feel it is important to repeat it, using these garments, drawing from history, put us in touch with the past lives: we want to relive them, we want them to inspire us, we want to learn from people's lives».

Traditions blend in unexpected ways. Materials, embroidery and garments reverse and challenge each other to upset and disturb. Men's androgynous tank tops become dresses made of layers of lightweight fabrics, like new petticoat dresses just blown on the body but reminiscent of the fashion house’s soul. The same goes with the bourgeois spirit of geometric patterns, derived from ugly chic, of large voluminous full skirts, of asymmetrically worn necklaces. Coats and outerwear play with shapes. They are moulded with a couture tailoring or become oversized in parkas and bomber jackets worn over light dresses, inspired by those embroidered transparencies that the brand loves so much. While the coats open on the neck or on the back and the shape of the garments modifies their relationship with the body, suspended on shoes and boots, those sloping rodeo boot heels, reminding of the western video clip style of Personal Jesus that echoes in the soundtrack.

Tailoring applied to soft clothes generates new shapes, interpreted by women loved by the two creatives. Women of the past but also of the future. Kaia Gerber opens the show in good company. Amanda Murphy, Elise Crombez, Irina Kravchenko, Julia Nobis, Kinga Rajzak, Hannelore Knuts, Arizona Muse, Querelle Jensen, Suvi Koponen, Liya Kebede, Erin O'Connor, Rianne Van Rompaey, Mica Argañaraz and Hunter Schafer, who made headlines for her participation in the tv show Euphoria. But also Kendall Jenner, who finds a bit of her family at the show, given that Kim Kardashian is in the front row, sitting between Francesco Vezzoli, Mahmood and Rita Ora. «We are inspired by the past to translate beauty, the quality of tradition, even in high fashion!», Raf Simons added.

«It is something Prada has always done. Enhancing history also means recovering the history of Prada. I am thinking of the revolutionary moments that marked it and that we try to recall here. There are never direct reproductions, but reflections of something we recognize, a language that belongs to Prada. These are the moments that helped us define our current idea of beauty, the one we want to redefine today». A Prada mode, to quote the name of the itinerant club created by the fashion house.

Judgment. New bourgeoisie. Transparencies and layering. Hairy highlights for an urban wild. 60’s graphic prints. Triangles also on the bags. The elements are all there. A happy excursus that mixes the today’s and yesterday’s souls of the fashion house, ready to make new conquests. All about Prada. (All rights reserved)