Milan Fashion Week | Prada presents its vision of superheroines

(Milan) The Prada fashion house offered on Thursday at Milan Fashion Week its vision of a bourgeois woman with a superheroine look, in a context of growth in its sales in contrast to a sector that is rather in decline.

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented 45 looks presenting “all a different and singular vision of being Prada” from an exploration of “all our references, from vintage to our key pieces, mixing the past, the present, the coolthe sexy, the serious,” they explained after the show.

“The result is these possibilities for everyone to find their own way of being a superhero, where everyone can define their own strength,” the two creative directors summarized behind the scenes.

On the catwalk, there were knee-length pencil skirts, but decorated with harnesses and carabiners, a feathered dress with an orange anorak, tights with belts, or trompe-l’oeil belts printed on pants, shirts or jackets as if pinched in the wrong place, creased or slightly damaged.

This show was, as always, one of the most anticipated of the week, with Prada continuing to be a cult brand and one of the most desirable in the sector. It ranks third in the ranking of the most sought-after brands on Lyst, the fashion search engine that publishes this catwalk every year (this year in July 2024). Just ahead of it is Miu Miu, the other brand of the Milanese house.

What makes the Prada house, founded in 1913 by the two Prada brothers, Mario and Martino, then taken over by the daughter of one of the founders, Luisa, and then by her granddaughter, Miuccia, still so famous? “Prada’s strength is that it has always remained faithful to its DNA, provoking a real cult following while remaining discreet,” analyzes Antonio Bandini Conti, consulting designer and coordinator of the Master in Haute Couture at the European Institute of Design in Milan.

Miuccia Prada, creative director of the brand since 1978 – today in a duo with Raf Simons – “was interested in the wardrobe of the bourgeois woman […] began to deconstruct it, to destructure it, to introduce what she calls “sbagliato”, something that disturbs, that looks like a mistake: here a length too long, there an acid color, an apparent seam, a torn collar. All while maintaining divine proportions and a refined taste,” he continues.

She has thus “built a distinctive identity and built customer loyalty,” he concludes.

The financial results are there: Prada recorded a 6% increase in its retail sales in the first half, while Miu Miu, which shows in Paris next week, has seen an exponential surge of more than 90% in its sales. And this in a difficult economic and geopolitical context.