Prada’s autumn/winter collection for 2021 heralds a new era of optimism
Prada’s latest collection is a reminder of the liberation we once had, and a celebration of the post-pandemic life that awaits us.
When news broke last March that Raf Simons would be joining Miuccia Prada as co-creative director of her label, the fashion world rejoiced.
In some ways, the partnership was inevitable. Both Prada and Simons, a longtime innovator at Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and Jil Sander, had explored similar concepts in their designs long before they joined forces. The concept of clothes as uniform, for example — the utilitarianism and absence of vanity that (ironically) inspires confidence — was a well-loved theme; so too were the pair enamoured with the intersection of fashion and art. In a conversation for System Magazine, Simons mused with Prada on the industry’s unexplored possibilities.
“Maybe fashion should operate more like a museum, where you have a museum curator, but you have guest curators come in, too,” he said. “It should become much more liberated once again.”
Their visions of freedom, however, would quickly be undercut by the year that lay ahead. As the pandemic spread across the globe, Italy in particular found itself severely impacted. The northern area of the country was the first region in Europe to experience an outbreak of COVID-19, while in November, the number of new cases reached a high of over 40,000 a day.
Nevertheless, Prada and Simons pushed on, releasing their debut collection for Prada’s womenswear virtually in the spring/summer season of September. Their next collection, a menswear offering for autumn/winter, was walked down the runway at the beginning of the year in January. Even for an autumn offering, colour was noticeably absent. Simons himself admitted that he had approached it with restraint.
“We don’t feel it’s right, now, to be too exuberant.”
But the pair’s latest collection of womenswear, which aired on February 25, seems to beckon in a new era of optimism.
The title of the show itself, ‘Possible Feelings II: Transmute’, spoke to the metamorphic qualities of the clothing on display. From the very beginning there was a sense of re-emergence. Underneath navy blazers and skirt suits were patterns of all shades, second-skin jacquard knits and tights that brought colour-clashing to the fore — oranges and greens, purples and duck-egg blues. Gloves stretched to the wrist and the shoulder, and suits lightened to blue pinstripe and grey. Sequin paillettes would follow, rippling over mid-calf boots (crafted, true to form, from absurdly bright leather).
The most breathtaking pieces, however, were the coats. In pursuing “the idea of change and transformation, opening possibilities,” Prada’s outerwear seemed to pulse with colour. Stoles and the house’s Re-Nylon draped over models’ shoulders like an unfurling cocoon. Look 11, a neon yellow coat with a drop-shoulder and exaggerated puff sleeves, was a particular standout. The pair’s final masterpiece, a blue-sequined chesterfield coat, emerged the analogous butterfly, bringing the show to a close. Against marble walls and floors covered in purple and pink fur, the whole experience was almost psychedelic, and above all, joyous.
In a post-show interview, Prada and Simons described the concept of their collection.
“Ease and movement were very important to us,” Simons affirmed.
The techno music setting the tone of the show, courtesy of Richie Hawtin, was also a timely reminder — or perhaps a first taste — of the night life we so desperately want to revive. Furthering the theme of renewal was the structure of the space itself, which will soon be repurposed and donated to Meta, a circular economy project in Milan dedicated to waste reduction.
In her 2016 conversation with Simons (which, in retrospect, reads like a foreshadowing), Prada discussed the idea of dressing as a state of mind. “You look at something and think it is beautiful, but who cares about clothes if the mindset doesn’t correspond to you.”
It is this philosophy that Prada brings to us now as we ready ourselves for a world, reopened.
“Slowly something is mounting, some more desire and excitement,” Prada says. “Optimism is mounting, very much.