Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons' Fall/Winter 2024 Prada womenswear presentation featured absolutely zero slime. Ziltch.
Last season models meandered through slime as it showcased Spring/Summer 2024. A few months prior, Prada did the same with its men's show, as gloopy slime dripped from the Fondazione Prada ceiling.
This season, though? Nothing. Not a drop.
Instead, FW24 was presented amidst a virtually empty room and atop a transparent runway which housed a sea of green shrubbery beneath it. This was apparently to reflect the contradiction between our indoor existence and our innate connection to the outdoors.
The collection itself, presented on day two of Milan Fashion Week, saw Prada take a deep dive into the notions of beauty and an emotional reaction to ideals of beauty that still feel resonant, as opposed to an intellectual examination, according to the brand.
This meant that the clothes, while inspired by the notions of beauty, were objectively more playful than we've seen in recent seasons.
There were bows, frills, and ruffles, while archetypal garments like biker jackets, bomber jackets, knitwear arrived reinterpreted by elements drawn from history.
FW24 felt like a change of course from Prada Spring/Summer 2024, where the designs focused on the evolution of signature house styles and the techniques and materials that formed them.
Last season the theme was reworked classics. There were knee-length pencil skirts, classic sweaters, and kitten heels. It was ugly chic office-core, but realized through the inimitable Prada lens.
While the vibe through FW24 was clearly to have more fun, the ugly chic through-line remained.
After all, Miuccia Prada herself has been making a case for decades that beauty can be a lot more enthralling with a little dash of ugliness thrown in, so it only makes sense that FW24 had a little of both.
