MILAN, ITALY — Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ work is striking for its philosophy. Few designers today have the talent—or the desire—to reconfigure traditional notions of modern dressing, mix rich materials with simple ones to create hard, striking pieces, and then use them to propose an undeniably beautiful aesthetic.
Prada’s Spring/ Summer 2027 collection featured a plethora of skirts, bralettes and knits, many with structured hems; there were richly textured sweaters in brown and night blue, crinkly leather ensembles and shiny feminine toppers. But most important of all, there was no unnecessary ornamentation—just well-constructed, defiantly modern offerings based on strong creative power.
Purpose, function, and form shape an enduring aesthetic language that’s very close to the house’s design lexicon; case in point, Velcro in clashing tones is teamed with crystal embroideries, without affecting its inherent functionality. “Our perception of a garment may be changed through its friction with others,” state the notes. “A skirt may be abstracted, a fragment of a whole with a mutating rapport with the pieces it juxtaposes: a sweater, a shirt, a bra top, can each suggest alternate readings of a whole,” they explained.
Conceived as a fastening, it allows skirts to adapt, modify, alter shapes and visual effects through the art of concealment and reveal of embellishment. Magnified metal snap fasteners are jewelled while crinoline, an internal component, becomes a decorative layer, or a protective shell. Textures rejig the viewer’s perception, challenging and subverting an established language.
On the other hand, industrial fabrications—namely ciré matt and Re-Nylon—are translated to plissé, while cotton is treated to mimic leather or suede. Elsewhere, jewelled skirts recreate guipure lace in crystal, floral prints appear in cotton and synthetics, and the pleated skirt expands beyond the body in untethered material held in the hand that shifts gesture. Here, one good item is worth more than a thousand misplaced elements.
by Chidozie Obasi