Transcending Gender: Prada’s New Fashion Frontier
The futuristic set at Prada’s fall 2015 Men’s show signaled the beginning of a new gender blending era for the Prada man. “Gender is a context and context is often gendered,” read Miuccia’s Prada show notes. Mixing a 90s Manchester style with a refined modernistic touch the peacoat took on a new visual vocabulary leading us back into the future in black nylon coats with fine micro stitching.
Prada mixed in a few women’s looks adding contrast to the men’s collection. Some of the male models donned long elongated jackets and shirts belted tightly at the waist with tailored trousers and formal coats. It was by no means a unisex collection, but the shared aesthetic of a “power uniform was equally severe, elegant and imposing. The men wore sartorial suits, while the women wore pleated knee-length dresses. With both sexes toting serious, briefcase-like bags. Stylish titanium steel eyewear frames helped to bridge the gap between a retro aesthetic and neo-futurism.
The collection celebrates the differences between the sexes, while bringing forth a unified field of color and style. The powerful drama of the clothes was limited only by the imagination. In many ways the collection seemed to illustrated the heightened debate of LGBT activism, and the cross pollination of ideas and ongoing “analysis of the relationship between men and women.”
