Prada Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear: Front to Back, Power and Vulnerability, In the Same Garment
Fragments of beauty. The need for goodness. The history of women. An obsession with the current film “Zone of Interest” about domestic life going merrily along in the literal shadow of the horrors of war.
All were mentioned by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons in the backstage scrum after the fall 2024 women’s runway show.
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If they sounded a bit like military code talkers, it was at least appropriate for this collection, which paired somber, at times ’40s wartime-feeling tailoring with the loveliness of silk lingerie, back bustles and silk bows, often on a single garment that was different front to back.
Skirts in suiting fabrics cut in strict shapes, some literal trouser skirts creased and cuffed like a giant pant leg, were marvelous to look at with the backs replaced by pastel silk slips, and sprouting colorful bows or bustles over the bums.
Immaculate in their construction, but hard to wear for anyone other than the fiercest fashion fanatics, perhaps, they still captured two of the biggest emerging trends of the season — power tailoring and lingerie looks, and hinted interestingly at the idea of clothing as a facade. Overcoats and blazers with silk backs, as if cut from a man’s suiting vest, looked easier, and what a clever way to lighten up outerwear in the time of climate change.
This was Prada back in lady mode with 1960s shifts decorated with tiny bows, and trimmed at the collars or hems in faux fur; slips with artful flocking and fringing effects; sweaters dripping crystals; prim twin sets, and pointy-toe pumps (but with comfortable looking block heels). The color combinations were as inspiring as ever, ultraviolet with red, teal with emerald. And milliners should rejoice at the swirled velvet hats and brightly colored officer’s caps.
Then, just to throw in something even more unexpected (and commercial, too), out came P13 (for Prada, established in 1913) varsity jackets, and technical looking outerwear in feminine shapes, nylon pencil skirts and shift dresses with slouchy front pockets.
“Sometimes it’s just instinctual, absurd things that we love,” said Simons, explaining the highly designed nylon pieces. “To go skiing in cocktail dresses is not so obvious,” he said.
Also not so obvious? Handbags cuffed to the crook of the elbow, rather than carried in it like your grandma did.
“When you take fragments of history, how do you do them in a way that they don’t become nostalgic?” said Simons. “We aim to be modern, something that feels fresh and new.”
“Nostalgia is not the point,” Prada echoed, also mentioning the collection in the context of feminism, which is at the root of her lifelong vision as a female designer to recontextualize and redefine ladylike tropes. “You look at history very much to learn something. It was some intellectual who said taking away a piece from the past is separating it from its cage.”
Spoken like a free woman.
For more Milan Fashion Week reviews, click here.
Launch Gallery: Prada Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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