Prada menswear in Milan: Instinctive, not so inventive

Divining Miuccia Prada’s intentions for every collection always begins in one’s hotel room on opening her latest invitation. This season for menswear, it contained three inches of tubular steel.
 
What did it all mean? Well, that became apparent in the set she and design cohort Raf Simons ordered built inside their show-space, Prada Deposito. A huge, three-floor installation of tubular scaffolding and custom-made Art Nouveau hotel carpet, from Catherine Martin.

Guests wondered around to find their faux concrete block benches. On a dark, dank winter day in Milan, one entered semi-darkness, where the pre-show soundtrack was an electronic dirge by Orbital. 
 
Before segueing into minimalist trance as the first models appeared, marching rapidly around the mazy, zig zag runway, between all the metal poles. 

This fall/winter 2025 collection was concise, clever and cool – if not particularly original, except for Raf and Miuccia’s current obsession with faux fur.
 
Pretty well every model walked in cowboy boots, albeit in multiple guises, though many of them suggesting second-hand, almost recently dyed for fun. Appearing in canary yellow, off-white, blood orange or best of all in faded flower power prints. All sure to spark a major trend. Pants were pleated and tapered at the ankle; coats cut with plenty of shoulder room and finished with notched lapels. 
 
Many of the cast bedecked with shearling, cut and dyed like wild fur, almost like raw pelts. Hanging lopsidedly around the neck; or used as tank tops or gilets; or the trim of dense cotton parkas. And in a eccentric twist – many guys wore pearl earrings suggesting mini basketballs. 
 

See catwalk

Fans will also love the mock check dressing gowns for town. And one had to admire two brilliant burnished leather suits and white leather pajamas.

“It’s about instinctive thinking. It’s not about a narrative or a concept. So, the key words are human, wild and a cinematic feeling,” said Raf, who added that the space was “ideal” for a post-show party, maybe after the next women’s show in February. 
 
Buyers all looked happy exiting this show, but somehow it all felt little off. And I never thought I would write this about a Prada collection, not very relevant.
 
Exiting Deposito, the ear was shaken by hundreds of teenage fans screaming for Asian idols, their crash barriers oddly bedecked with strange orange balloons. While a new block of flats just built across the street looked like a prison for white collar criminals. There was a time when a Prada catwalk show seemed like the very epicenter of cool. Not this Sunday in Milan.
 
Given their financial results, one can be sure that Prada is making a lot of money these days; but not really making that much sense.