For SS26, Prada Is Calmly "Dismantling Power"
“A Change of Tone,” the title of Prada's Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection, proved to be an accurate one. Even before the proceedings kicked off, some differences in approach were immediately obvious.
Though the show was held, as usual, in the industrial Fondazione Prada, Prada left windows uncovered to allow natural light inside. And in contrast to recent experiments in adventurous set design — highlights from Prada shows include slime dripping from the ceiling and a zen garden visible beneath a glass runway — the concrete-clad space was left unadorned save for a range of shaggy flower-shaped rugs.
It’s the first time that a Prada runway has been left so bare, co-creative director Raf Simons said backstage.
The reason for this starkly decorated, brutalist showspace? "Calmness," a key phrase consistently repeated by both Simons and Miuccia Prada after the presentation.
The message behind Prada’s newest summer attire? Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Though this was a presentation of change, there were also throughlines.
A longtime proponent of short-shorts, Prada's show opened with some typically minuscule legwear. But this season, inseams shrank even smaller.
The selection of tiny trunks, often adorned with equally tiny cargo pockets and cinched to the leg, was sometimes entirely obscured beneath the relaxed leather jackets or tops. If the shorts riding high, shirts were doing the opposite, fitted with an exaggerated length that sometimes reached halfway down the wearer's thigh.
Trench coats and leather jackets were also paired with Prada's barely-there legwear, like quick layers tossed on over vacation gear in the face of a stiff breeze. More contradictions: A sporty red track top emerged beneath a grey two-piece suit with its sleeves rolled up.
Perhaps the most striking statement came up top and down below.
Tall, cone-shaped hats topped many a look, some with long strands of material hanging down onto the wearer’s face. Underfoot, flip-flops and driving loafers — the latter a shoe so incredibly louche that it's only made stylish by the best-dressed — reiterated the notion of unbothered ease with wholly different strands of sumptuousness.
Prada’s show notes spoke of “a shift of attitude — dismantling of meaning, and dismantling power.”
The power of formality, of rigidity. The meaning of staid clothing norms, all washed away in Prada's calm tide.
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