MILAN, Italy — Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ Spring/ Summer 2026 show for Prada offered a take on the moving threads of saturation of contemporary times, blending timeless volumes with a dash of subtle provocation. “Inevitably, when we create, we think about the world around us,” noted Ms Prada.
“The future is unknown,” she continued, explaining how “this collection was born as a reaction to uncertainty – clothes that can transform, change, adapt. The combination of different elements, this idea of composition, brings with it the possibility of choice and therefore freedom, authority and autonomy for the woman who wears them. It is fashion intrinsically connected to the world, with meaning and utility. It is about how to face the world, and how to survive.”
From a response to the overload of contemporary culture, a process of garment deconstruction and distillation runs through clothing. Different, unexpected, and unpredictable elements are broken down and reassembled on the body, as juxtaposition becomes an act of creation. The SS26 show epitomises an analysis in which clothes are freed from seemingly stern hierarchies and brought into precise harmony.
The customary Prada uniform, combined in an atypical way with typically feminine elements, takes on the same role as evening wear in recompositions of sheer elegance. Structures are reduced to their essence, and the garments, shaped around the body in carefree abandon, envelop the silhouette with lightness. Their fundamental properties are radically reconsidered: skirts are suspended by the shoulders, bras have shape but no structure.
Through new pairings and re-evaluations, the garments take on meanings that fluctuate and change, depending on the wearer’s quality, expressing an intrinsic flexibility, an ability to adapt, and each of these compositions is constantly and insistently transformed in response to the here and now.
“We started from the sense of freedom we wanted to express through clothing,” observed Simons, touching on the freedom to combine different elements, to compose them, but also on physical liberation, moving away from the idea of fashion as a sculptural imposition on a woman’s body.
“We always hope to offer something new, but looking to the past is inevitable. You start to reflect on the meaning of the garments, what they represented and how to re-evaluate them today. Uniforms are part of Prada’s history: for us, a woman in uniform can be beautiful, elegant and strong.”
by Chidozie Obasi