Yesterday at the Deposito of Fondazione Prada in Milan, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented Prada’s Fall/Winter 2026 menswear collection. Named “Before and Next,” the Prada FW26 line illuminated a suite of adaptable and transformative pieces—perfect for day-to-night dressing and a range of weather changes.
Prada FW26: Behind the Atmosphere
Courtesy of Prada.
The set, conceived by AMO—OMA’s research and design studio—reimagined the industrial space as an “imagined past,” with fragments of domestic interiors, private life, and architectural traces that felt archaeological and intimate. What is usually concealed was laid bare, with walls opened, rooms blending into one another, and the private became public. Instead of a mere backdrop for a fashion show, it was more of an environment that asked what it means to build what’s next without erasing what came before.
From the Past, Into the Future
The collection’s title posed a similar question: What can we build from what we have learned? For Simons and Prada, the answer was an evolution created less from nostalgia and more from continuity. The new wardrobe suggested a future that carries its past with it, shaped by memory, respect, and an insistence on human values in an era defined by volatility.
Within what the house described as “uncomfortable, unpredictable times,” clarity became a form of assurance. First, clarity was seen through the silhouette. Elongated and precise, it was conscious of the human form within—of posture, of stance, of how a body takes up space. Coats fell in clean, vertical lines; trousers were straight and purposeful; shoulders were defined, but not aggressive. The Prada FW26 collection whispered quiet authority with clothes that don’t not shout, but stand tall.
Clothing Rooted in Reimagined Tradition
Courtesy of Prada.
Courtesy of Prada.
Garments appeared simple and restrained, but they exposed intricate construction and deliberate craft. Seams shifted slightly, and panels were reconsidered. Traditional tailoring was disassembled and reassembled with intent, proving that the architecture of clothing was pared back to show awareness—of craft, of process, of the body that animates it.
The collection also seemed to have been built on traces of tradition. Familiar elements—classic coats, suiting, knitwear, shirting—were transformed through a questioning of convention. Trenches were a big hit, and reimagined, with bucket hats in the same color and material affixed to the neckline and shawl-like trench tops topping traditional trench coats. Blazers felt archetypal, but their proportions were reimagined. Coats carried the echo of uniform or ceremony, but in unexpected material. Knitwear stretched into elongated forms, hovering between armor and second skin. These were clothes that remembered where they came from, even as they insisted on becoming something else.
Prints and Materials Imbued with Meaning
Courtesy of Prada.
Prints then functioned like palimpsests. Collaged and layered, they featured faces, fragments, and painterly gestures, collapsing eras into a single surface. The effect was not decorative but philosophical—a reminder that today is built atop histories. Each garment became, as the notes suggested, an “archaeology of thought,” carrying multiple references.
Material choices reinforced this tension between past and present. Dense wools, felted surfaces, and tactile knits grounded the collection in warmth and durability—clothes meant to endure. Polished leathers and technical finishes introduced a contemporary edge. The dialogue between the two felt intentional: civilization expressed through care, through intelligence, through making things that last. Duration itself became a value. As the show notes stated, to remember is a sign of respect.
Courtesy of Prada.
Courtesy of Prada.
What emerged was a meditation on civilization. Culture, meaning, care—these universal values were proposed as something that clothing can carry. Each piece held impressions of life, of use, of continuity. In an industry often obsessed with newness, Prada offered an alternative ethic: progress that honors inheritance.
The Past as a Metaphor for Prada FW26
Courtesy of Prada.
Courtesy of Prada.
The atmosphere of the Deposito amplified this message. Marked by an imagined past, the space became a metaphor for the collection’s core idea. Walls and doorways framed an arena for public gathering. Vestiges of interior lives were repurposed for collective experience. It was an environment that mirrored the garments themselves: what is usually hidden was revealed; what is closed became open.
Models moved through the Deposito with deliberation, in clothing that echoed the set’s emotional register. There was gravity, but not heaviness. The elongated silhouette lent a sense of purpose, as if each figure were carrying something forward, like knowledge, memory, or responsibility. Prada Fall/Winter 2026 proposed fashion as a form of thinking. In a moment when the future feels unstable, the brand suggested not forgetting, but building with awareness. The past is material—and from it, something meaningful can still be made.
Courtesy of Prada.
