Prada Returns to the “Utilitarian, and Industrial Soul” of the Brand
At Prada Fall 2018 men’s, Miuccia Prada returned to the utilitarian and industrial roots that helped established her brand in the 90s. The collection was unveiled at the new Fondazione Prada warehouse in Milan where boxes were stacked and labeled with Prada’s iconic logo and other graphics. Everywhere you looked there was black nylon – the fabric that made Prada a household name in the nineties. “I am in love with black nylon. I can’t have enough at the moment,” said Miuccia. “The idea was to use utilitarian or sporty things in a very elegant way. I have a passion for nylon — a love I could die for. Nylon is the emblem of the industrial side and when we started doing it, it was completely unusual.”
To highlight her industrial roots, a series of new collaborations with architects and designers including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Herzog and De Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, and Konstantin Grcic resulted in collectible pieces from the season’s themed material. Rem Koolhaas made the “frontpack” (aka wearing a backpack backwards), while Herzog and De Meuron created a bag pieced from random letters. “These spoke about text and words being something from the past. They don’t represent ideas or content any more, but are pure decoration,” says Prada. There were also bucket hats, sweater vests, name tags, and short sleeve shirts with matching shorts featuring eclectic graphic prints with bananas, lipstick or mermaids engulfed in graphic flames.
“We are living in a period which is interesting because we do not know where we are going. Of course scary, of course worrying, but also interesting because of the feeling that big changes are coming. So many people say that beauty will save the world, but I don’t believe so. The world will be saved by intelligence and humanity and generosity—and possibly love. But of course the aesthetic world helps, a little. If you can afford the time, we are doing an exhibition on fascism—my interest there is that man and art is under a regime, and obviously, it’s clear that when the world becomes difficult, there is still art, so even in hard times, art and beauty are possible.”
See All the Looks from the Collection
