Prada plays with onesies and knits for her menswear show, but it isn't all cosiness and comfort
The world’s a harsh enough place right now - be grateful, then, for Prada’s invitation - via a knitted invitation nestled in faux-fur - into a plush alternate universe lined in tufts of electric pink fluff. That was the striking set of the autumn/winter men’s show, the designer’s second collaboration with Raf Simons and first menswear showcase with the Belgian titan, who is far better known for his men’s clothing than he is for his women's.
What followed - broadcast online from Milan - was an exploration of how we dress now, with nods to the shifts we’ve seen in our wardrobes over the past eventful year.
“We’re interested in the life of people,” said Miuccia Prada via a digital link. “Fashion is about that, and I wanted to create an abstract place,” she said of the curious set, which with its pastels (and womb-like predominance of pink) felt like the most cosseting candy store.
“I wanted something that felt sensual, tactile, physical.” With those elements so lacking in today’s no contact digital world, Prada’s focus was on materials - the tufted, bobbly, textured, fluffy and knitted. “Knitwear actually takes up a great deal of the collection, a huge percentage of it,” said Simons.
And what knitwear; full knitted onesies in intricate woven patterns, as well as long johns on every model. It couldn’t help but draw parallels with the way we’ve been dressing in lockdown; sofa-attire as rendered through Prada’s kaleidoscopic lens. But for the designer, it was the intimacy of underwear garments that caught her interest. “They’re very close to the body, and there is a contrast because they show every part of the body but conceal it too,” said Prada.
These were a far cry from the cosy iterations taking up sofa space across the world since lockdown and at-home working enforced a casualisation of our wardrobes, however. They came lean and slick, razor-tight on the body; even long johns under coats and swamping knits looked sharp as opposed to sagging and sedatory.
Suiting did feature, albeit in a small way. Prada’s MO has been to take the tropes of what she finds ugly or unappealing and tackle them head on - see her ‘geek chic’ collections of the 90s, and after the show she admitted that she struggled with the pinstripes on the narrow, sharply tailored suits. “I’ve hated pinstripes all my life,” she said.
“But I like to have my mind changed, to be open to new ideas, in discussion.” Which is presumably where Simons came in, via their curious creative collaboration - the first of its kind in the fashion world.
Even in the technical nylon jackets and coats, oversized and ballooning in proportions, linings appeared to ape those of tapestry carpets, a sense of indoors cosiness on an outdoor material. Those jackets, and coats, couldn’t help but call to mind the silhouettes so prevalent in Simons’ own collections, raising questions of how much Simons is imprinting his aesthetic into the Pradaverse. Likewise the solid, bold colours of canary yellow and bougainvillea pink were straight from the Simons playbook.
Those primary hues were certainly vivid enough to capture the attention via flickering digital screens, and acted as a balance and palate-cleanser from the fuzzy textures and woollen knits. “Colour is a symbol of possibility,” said Mrs Prada. And no-one explores the boundaries of that like her.
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