Fashion / Fashion News

Celebration and a brief history of women at Prada Fall Winter 2022

Rather than offer the usual platitudes about half lives and the pandemic, for Fall 2022 Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons flipped the narrative, carving out a space for joy. One where we could celebrate humanity and more specifically, the history of women.

Yes, the archives served as a starting point. Ms. Prada and Simons trawled them together, but instead of directly pulling and plucking from what has come before, the two looked to the past in order to continue what Simons has called the "language of Prada". A language that connects tradition with our current culture, one that links generations and shared histories.

Darkness is interrupted as Kaia Gerber steps out of the light at the end of the tunnel, a metaphor both in and of itself. She introduces what we can only assume will become the next 'it' Prada piece to have, a plain ribbed tank with the signature triangular hardware logo across the chest, primed and ready to enter the street style circuit. A gesture from both designers that blends utility with freedom of movement.

Mid length skirts with sheer panelling shimmer around the calves thanks to loosely beaded hemlines. A gauzy and glistening silver tank dress hints at sex, like an envelope put forward on the table. Masculine shoulders link heavy black evening dresses with the flood of stiff, oversized suit jackets and coats, some bearing rings of green feathers, others double-breasted and belted at the waist for an interruptance of femininity. Robust leather trench coats arrive in oiled-up olive and Prada's signature shocking pink. There's also a smattering of oversized bomber jackets heavily embroidered with flowers or emitting feathery spikes.

We're reminded of the archives when sweaters, paired back in shape and style, boast the kaleidoscopic, "ugly" Prada prints of the nineties. Think acid green, fuschia and brown. Our favourite faces file in, there's Anok Yai, Mica Argañaraz and the season's 'it' girl Hunter Schafer, their hair all slicked back and tucked under. Pointed toe sandals and knee-high boots continue to be the shoe du jour and like a snake winding from spine to collar, pearl necklaces are introduced back onto the runway, secured with a Prada emblem.

It's a show that oscillates between lightness and overbearing weight, jutting architecture and the soft curves of the female form. Even with the deluge of outwear, there is room for movement, space for the unknown so that we as women, may welcome in whatever lay ahead with relics of the past to guide us onward.

Watch the Prada Fall Winter 2022 show, below.

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