First Look: The Shoes That Only Prada Could Redeem
Prada, perhaps the world's brainiest luxury label, is also the only one that would dare to so brashly tackle familiar footwear with the renegade zeal necessary to render it new. At the very least, you can trust that Prada isn't upsetting the classics simply because it can — co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons famously shun spectacle for spectacle's sake.
And we all know that they hold the classics in high regard, at that.
You may not know that if you only glanced at the shoes unveiled as part of Prada's Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection, however, which undermine footwear conventions with near-anarchic glee.
The classic black leather loafer? Beheaded, leaving the wearer's dogs utterly bare. The corresponding derby shoe? Likewise guillotined. The driving loafer, a shapeless leather slipper that looks wildly out of place anywhere but the driver's seat of a sportscar? Elevated to an artful ideal.
Even the humblest of canvas lace-up sneakers is here, returning to its roots as the elegantly unpretentious deck shoe worn by ivy leaguers in the '60s.
It's all part of Prada's ingenious approach.
The toe-free leather shoes are an inversion of formal codes no less wearable than their conventional forebears but far freakier (in a good way). The lace-up sneaker is a luxed-up reflection of SS26's prep-ish beachside motifs.
And the driving loafers are a daring and truly luxe reclamation of a shoe so often mistaken for being "luxe" simply because it has loafer tendencies. (note Prada already offers a comparatively conventional driving loafer style)
With that style in particular, Prada's gambit is most clearly laid bare: Rather than merely remake well-established shapes and call them new, Prada artfully provokes the familiar. Its plush leather driving shoes are too indulgent and too design-forward — Aggro pop-art colorways! Intricately embossed leather! — to blend in with those that came before. They know they're challenging. And so much the better.
This is part of the Prada genius that's been on display for decades. And as always, don't worry if you can't comprehend it immediately. You eventually will.
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