An examination of fluid architecture, around the human body. The Spring/Summer 2024 Prada menswear collection by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons proposes an absolute freedom of the body, expressed through the foundations of the garments that clothe it. The shirt is a point of departure, its structure and details borrowed as a base to transform an entire stable of menswear – suits, raincoats, active sportswear, reporter jackets. Reconsidered construction, re-constructed with a fluidity questions the conventional language of rigid tailoring. Centrally, qualities of lightness and softness are brought to garments throughout, creating a fluctuating rapport between the body and its clothes. These clothes are ultimately reflective of our natural state – the dynamic movement and constant transformation inherent to humanity.
Surprisingly, Prada, the undisputed temple of robotic masculinity, came with mild acknowledgment of sexuality this season. Raf Simons’ adolescent obsessions and Mrs Prada’s solid bourgeois leanings, peppered with their art obsessions came together in a way that brought the body to the fore, inside a cold metal cage with dripping slime drawing liquid walls all around: part Alien, part erotic bodily secretion.
As a gesamtkunstwerk, the show was masterful, not a single element out of place.
BOF
The word of the two creatives merges, and it’s certain that not even Prada stands still. It evolves, changes its skin, starting by respecting its DNA that begins with an intellectual flight and then lands, allowing itself some earthly licenses that conquer. Aesthetic, vain, captivating.
MF Fashion
Prada showcased on Sunday with a beautiful collection featuring ‘fluid’ architecture that moves towards ‘absolute freedom of the body expressed through the foundation of the garments that dress it’.
Libero
The ultimate goal was freedom – freedom of the body and, also, freedom of design. By eschewing conventions in creating their traditional tailoring, Prada and Simons created something truly free, and modern and – dare we say the word – maybe even new. There was an idea that, although the form was familiar, its physicality was actually something we had never quite seen before. A bit like the gooey chamber it was all shown in. How rare is that?
Another Magazine
Before the show even started, you knew this was going to be interesting. Prada is always best when
there’s some kind of tension or juxtaposition — or even paradox, to borrow from the title of their latest perfume.
i-d.vice.com
Prada is increasingly an interpreter of the times […]. It is the present, the everyday, seemingly simple, that seems to interest Mrs. Miuccia and her artistic counterpart, Raf Simons. There they are, together, where bodies and masculinity are discussed, where fluidity and simplicity, essentiality and functionality are elaborated, shaping the concept of a wardrobe that is a synthesis and apotheosis of everything but, and here lies the ingenious aspect, built upon what already exists.
Corriere della Sera
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons delivered fashion fireworks galore with their spring 2024 men’s show for Prada, conceived as a freewheeling exploration of the shirt — which some audience members viewed through curtains of slime flanking parts of the runway.
WWD
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have embarked on the path of surpassing themselves ever since they started working together. Demonstrating that the concept still serves to construct garments and that clothes can effectively represent a thought.
Style Magazine
Our favorite look? A sleeveless model in faux fur. A true success. […] While Prada’s spring-summer 2024 collection returns to the basics of the modern man, it doesn’t prevent it from being bold. The Italian fashion house has enriched the presented garments with unmissable details.
GQ France