Light, haze, fluidity and a little slime in great clothes

Prada under Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons keeps on breaking new ground, especially in their directional and defiant collection seen Thursday in Milan, a blend of light, haze and fluidity.

The brand had an incredibly successful 2022, but Miuccia and Raf are definitely not sitting on their laurels. Instead, they experimented with remarkable technical fabrics so light they looked like smoke. A series of styles that looked hyper modern presented in front of the sheaths of transparent glue. An idea they had already catwalk tested in their June menswear show. 
 
While in terms of silhouette they explored several new shapes, from subtle ascending V-shape jackets to cunningly oversized hunting parkas. The duo putting their atelier into overdrive with beautifully embroidered cocktails and skirts covered in sequins, crystals and bugle beads. 

“Enough about concepts. We wanted to talk about clothes, that’s our job and what we care about,” said Miuccia, whose Fondazione Prada in Venice’s current exhibition is called ‘Let’s Talk about the Weather’.
 
Working with what Simons termed “haze materials”, that one couldn’t imagine grasping they were almost miraculous dresses. While miniskirts that were made of just fringes seemed to float down the runway inside Prada’s custom-made show-space.
 
“One of the things we really wanted to challenge – was to go very light, nylon flou. The idea was to really challenge the technicality of embroidery and decoration,” added Simons.
 
Describing himself as a former “outsider to Prada,” Raf mused that the brand never really communicated on its incredible craftmanship, compared to other “lesser brands that did with big, long press releases.”
 
Though when asked to be more precise, he joked to much laughter: “what’s the point of another communiqué saying 300 people had worked for 700 days on a dress!”

See catwalk

 The duo also unveiled a great revamped tote-style bag named ‘1913’, culled from the archives and first developed my Miuccia’s grandfather. It felt like an It Bag from the first passage.
 
Overall, the collection did follow elements of the menswear show in June – from the sheets of slime to the fine wool fabrics. Though by decorating the masculine elements the femininity was enhanced.
 
In a word, a first-rate show which won a standing applause from an audience that included Scarlett Johansson, Dominique Cumberbatch and enough K Pop stars to fill an Asian MTV Awards ceremony.
 
Two weeks ago, a release that announced Miuccia had decided “to formalize her role” as its director of the Fondazione Prada, as she named a new steering committee for her one-of-a-kind art center, had raised eyebrows about her engagement. However, judging by this collection, Miuccia is still intensely committed to fashion and enjoying her work greatly.
 
This show marked the final collection to carry the imprint of Fabio Zambernardi, Miuccia Prada’s design director for three decades, news of whose departure from Prada broke earlier this month.
 
Sportingly, Raf and Miuccia took their bow with Fabio. Zambernardi certainly departs a brand in rude health. Last year Prada scored a 21% increase in annual sales to €4.2 billion in 2022, as net profit jumped 58% to €465 million. And, after lagging behind many Italian rivals, Prada also made progress digitally – as online sales accounted for 7% of turnover.
 
However, Prada’s market cap – valued at $15 billion – seems low compared to its annual revenues. Doubly so, when one considers that when the brand was floated on the Hong Kong stock exchange back in 2011, it valued the company at $11 billion.
 
Expect that market cap to rapidly improve, especially after this show. At the mid-way point of the four-week international runway season, this was the most relevant, modern and influential show so far.