Show Notes: Prada Spring/Summer 2025 Menswear Collection
Playful clothes that nod to how people dress in real life.
When: June 16, 2024
Where: The Italian house's OMA-designed stronghold - Fondazione Prada - on the southern end of Milan. Within this hub, the duo had a model of a house constructed - a seemingly ordinary one like any you'd find in any American suburb. But once the show started in the darkness, pulsating light blasted out of it, suggesting an illicit rave perhaps.
The takeaway: At first glance, the clothes seem pretty collegiate - polo shirts, cardigans, V-neck knits, boot-cut pants. But nothing is ever so straightforward with a Prada collection - under a jumper, shirt cuffs and collars appeared strangely gravity-defying with their artfully scrunched shapes, thanks to in-built concealed wires (yep they're malleable).
The collection was titled Closer, in a nod to how most things here are not what they seem when viewed from afar, or from your screen. Come closer and you'll be rewarded - what looks like a normal combo of a V-neck sweater and shirt is actually one knitted piece, while the belts on those slinky low-slung pants are painted on for a trompe l'oeil effect.
But Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons was also about balancing illusions with reality - or a simulation of reality anyway. Many pieces sported noticeable creases, distressed details and a general worn, patinated quality (all intentional), as if they were thrifted or perhaps pilfered from dad or mom's wardrobe. "Closeness reflects emotion - the human urge for proximity, to share space and commune," reads the press notes.
The notion of clothes (that look) well-loved and well-worn speaks to how people really dress like in reality. “We wanted it to look already alive; clothes that you already live with, things that not too constricted or contrived or architectural or conceptual: more like free youth spirits," stated Simons in media interviews after the show. “And it’s about the opposite of grandness, because there is too much grandness around in general," added Mrs. Prada.
What we’re eyeing: The nifty mirrored sunglasses (looks 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46) with fake scenes printed on (think people sun-tanning at a beach or ravers at a gig) are sure to be hot-sellers.
But we're also digging what seems to be the men's version of the Prada Buckle bag (looks 8, 30, 37, 38) that debuted at the brand's Spring/Summer 2024 women's show - it would make for a super chic work bag.
We'll also take the neon knit pieces (looks 2, 9 34, 35, 47, 48, as well as the wired crumpled shirts (especially the floral ones on looks 3, 6, 14).
Some of our favourite looks: