In yesterday's post we looked at a few trompe l'oeil tongue-in-cheek designs in Moschino's Men's S/S 25 and Resort 2025 collections. But it looks like trompe l'oeil may be a trend for next season.
On Prada's men's runway, models donned indeed cotton trousers with a wool herringbone print (that evoked the sort of style older members of your family – maybe an uncle or your grandfather – may opt for) with ironic trompe l'oeil belts.
Optical illusions also characterized the shrunken fitted knits as tight as superhero costumes in bright shades: in some cases, the polo collar in a contrasting color that seemed to peek out of the skinny jumpers with three-quarter sleeves, wasn't part of a shirt worn underneath, but it was more simply part of the jumper that was completed by an empty Prada logo on the back of the neck.
There were also trompe l'oeil striped tops with a little scarf around the neck and more illusions in the lenses of mirrored sunglasses that incorporated beach views (View this photo), marble statues and sailing boats on the horizon (View this photo), depicting in this way alternative realities.
The title of the collection was "Closer" and it was very apt since, looking at things close up offered a different perspective on the designs and made you realize that optical illusions were rife in the collection. This was a joke on what's fake and what's real in a world in which it is getting increasingly more difficult to distinguish them.
Through this dichotomy, Miuccia Prada and co-designer and co-creative director Raf Simons channeled youthful optimism, the inspiration behind the collection (youth is obviously always trending in fashion, but it seems to be especially prominent for the next season, if you also think about Pierre-Louis Mascia who took inspiration for his runway at Pitti Uomo from young and hip art school students).
On Prada's runway optimism was channeled through shrunken silhouettes and vivid colors, but also through leather macs and utility jackets in bright shades and T-shirts with paintings by Bernard Buffet.
The spontaneity of young people was also the inspiration for the collars of the shirts that integrated in their hems wires, so that they could be bent and crumpled, and in the studied creases on the fabrics that were neatly executed to create a perfect imperfection (yet, where's the spontaneity in collars that integrate wires and intentionally creased tops?).
Justified by the impulsive modus operandi of young people, Prada and Simons threw themselves into the collection without overthinking things too much.
And while that should have been liberating, it was at times limiting, first and foremost because they didn't produce groundbreaking ideas (trompe l'oeil has always existed in the history of fashion, but the sunglasses looked cool and somehow they evoked Pistoletto's mirror paintings), then because they displayed a certain dose of laziness proved by the final jumpsuits in bright colors with bright double zippers.
Rather than calling to mind Thayaht's iconic "tuta" or Prada's Devo-inspired overalls (from the fashion house's men's S/S 18 collection), the zippered overalls included in this collection are nothing more than the usual workwear overalls that you can find on a variety of sites (at a fraction of the price you'd pay for Prada's), including Aliexpress, Amazon, eBay and Etsy, not to mention workwear specialized sites.
Well, yes, you're right, the ordinary zippered overalls come in more boring and practical colors such as red, blue and green with zips mainly in black or white and pockets with horizontal zips, while Prada's version comes in brighter colors again with contrasting colored zips and vertical pockets. Yet the two designs are essentially the same.
So, you can pretend of being a mechanic at a fraction of the price or get adventurous buying affordable overalls and then dyeing the garment in more outrageous colors.
Somehow this design makes you think: if this is what two conceptual designers produce at a well-known and respected luxury house, how can we expect young people entering the fashion industry to invest time in researching inspirations, fabrics and materialsto produce something original and innovative?
There's another point to consider about luxury workwear (this isn't the first time Prada has ventured into overalls/workwear).
When a luxury house produces a workwear-inspired design, it appropriates and strips the design of its conventional meaning.
Real workers are indeed not expected to wear Prada overalls; these pieces are not tributes to Gian Maria Volonté in Elio Petri's Lulu the Tool, but they are dedicated to the brand's fans – impenitent fashionistas, influencers, and brand ambassadors – who typically have never done the hard jobs that traditionally require overalls.
So, once again, you get designs inspired by real jobs and real lives, but repackaged for fashion enthusiasts, something that reinforces the dichotomy between real and fake – in this case, real workwear that turns into a faux workwear garment for luxury fans.
Actually there was a great thing about this collection, but it didn't have anything to do with the clothes, and it was the set, as usualy designed by AMO.
Sets at Prada are actually becoming more interesting than the clothes (think about the slime dripping from the ceiling at Prada's S/S 24 men's and women's shows – that was more memorable than the actual clothes…). This time the set featured a white house, a sort of hut.
Maybe a reference to fairytales, it was actually illuminated by bright lights and emanated techno beats. Maybe it was the physical representation of a "fashion house", a reference to tales featuring mysterious huts in woods or a hint at "house" music and therefore to raves.
Or maybe it was another reference to the real and fake dichotomy, as it looked like a vision from a dream (or a nightmare…), yet models in flesh and bones came out of it and followed a winding, sloping runway flanked by a white fence that descended among the audience. Hopefully, aside from the set, there will be more to see at the next Prada show.
