Prada men's fluid form and a sense of freedom
The audience gasped as slime began to ooze from the metallic crate set overhead in the Deposito of the Fondazione Prada, partially obscuring models. This fluid architecture was a testament to the point the designers were making with the clothes.
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons were questioning the conventions of structure and masculinity in this free and modern collection. With fluid architecture expressed through morphs the pair were bringing something completely new to audiences with the Spring/Summer Prada menswear SS24 collection.
Featherlight tailoring and single layer
Tailoring was where the morphing of elements was found, with construction methods taken from shirts, but presented here without the underpinnings and interlinings normally used to stiffen but creating a sense of lightness. A jacket with a spread shirt-collar or with contrasting traditional lapels with buttoned shirt-cuffs creating hybrid morphing and even transformative moments.
Transformation
Prints also transformed from two dimensions to three, Hawaiian patterns vibrated with fringing, or expressive flowers. Decoration was used as a vehicle for adding complexity. Complexity was used as a metaphor for the complicated times we live in, all starting from a shirt to create a collection of men’s garments.
The dripping slime echoes the sunglasses and prescription glasses which envelop the face from this inspiring new collection from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons. Among clean lines, the collection dances between minimal silhouettes and materiality, with a special focus on eyewear shaped from a single mould, appearing as distortions in motion.
The goal was freedom through movement and design. While the form was familiar, its physicality was and in that a new idea of masculinity through questioning of the traditional and creating something that looked similar but felt different. questioning function and appearances
Available now at Ottica Lucciola is a wide collection silhouettes and colourways in men's sunglasses from refined Prada Game models with a squared design to the contemporary Prada Runway eyewear with a rectangular design, and the Prada Linea Rossa sunglasses.