Captured on film, Prada’s Spring/Summer 2022 menswear collection trailed through a sanguine tunnel, where models emerged to find themselves on a rocky shoreline. With Raf Simons as co-Creative Director (working in tandem with Miuccia Prada), the designs suggested an everyday utopia that was only enhanced by the setting’s clear skies and glistening blue water.
Courtesy of Prada.
Built for enjoying the sun, the collection featured shaded faces (provided by the selection of colorful bucket hats accompanying each look) and limbs exposed—by way of itty-bitty hemlines, tank tops, and shirts or jackets worn open. While the house upheld its own codes in pristine tailoring and classic cuts, the collection toyed with styles that, until recently, have not frequented the menswear oeuvre.
Almost entirely replacing the typical slack was a suite of shorts, skorts, and rompers, cropped or rolled to miniature lengths. The collection saw shorts as the summer standard for looks of all types—including more relaxed styles with sweatshirts and soft knits, alongside more elevated looks incorporating blazers, jackets, and outerwear, each worn with dress socks and oxfords.
Courtesy of Prada.
Texture and color were also of note this season. The house infused a feeling of merriment by the addition of tones and hues across the spectrum, combined with a mixture of textiles and finishes like glossy nylons and thick, structured knits in checks, stripes, and swirls. On a series of looks that reminded us of 19th-century bathing costumes, for example, there were pairings of square-neck tanks and skorts in opposing knit patterns—like a top in mustard, styled with striped bottoms in two-tone blue, or a similar ensemble in navy and rust.
Other highlights included an opposing print combination worn under a wine-colored leather jacket with striped shoes; a layered knit look barely peeking out from underneath an all-white duster, hat, and sunglasses combo; a houndstooth blazer worn with loosely rolled shorts and a striped hat; and a big-shouldered biker jacket in brilliant yellow, paired with a skort and bucket bag.
Courtesy of Prada.
