Last spring, Miuccia Prada told Vogue, “It’s strange, because, every single morning I have to decide if I am a 15-year-old girl or an old lady.” This year, Prada’s Fall/Winter Womenswear collection seems to grant its wearer a wardrobe for either mode of being. Returning to its customary slot on the Milan Fashion Week schedule, Prada opened the second day of runway shows with looks that range from sturdy suit jackets à la Corporate America to baby-pink dresses decked out in bows.
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons Marry Their Myriad Interests
This season, it seems that Creative Directors Prada and Raf Simons have found a way to marry their myriad interests. In lieu of traditional flooring, models walked along lush gardens encased in glass—a nod to the brand’s ever-present fascination with Mother Earth. Fuzzy pilot hats indicate the designers’ appreciation of aviation and sailing practices; traditional masculinity and femininity are playful points of whimsy.
Prada fall/winter 2024.
Most importantly, it’s clear that this collection is profoundly romantic in its nostalgia. Letterman jackets with “P” patches on the chest have the year of Prada’s founding, 1913, inscribed on the arms. 1950s-style cocktail dresses closed out the show, offering a luxurious reinterpretation of wardrobes past. Bomber jackets, biker jackets, and knitwear make appearances, with traditionally masculine materials reworked into the intrinsically feminine.
Prada fall/winter 2024.
Prada Finds Romance in the Past with Icons of Femininity
Here, Prada takes iconic symbols of femininity—the aforementioned bows, for starters, as well as a plethora of frills and ruffles—and reconsiders why they persist and what they mean. As the label put it, their newest collection “embeds fashion with fragments of histories, in an exploration of notions of beauty, of a contemporary world formed by memories. There is a romance, with the past.”
Prada fall/winter 2024.
Prada fall/winter 2024.
Prada fall/winter 2024.
