While the age-old adage goes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, inside the Milanese ateliers of Prada for their AW23 collection, it is in the hand of the maker. For the luxury Italian fashion House's Fall Winter 23 collection, beauty is reconsidered and reconceptualised – no longer determined by aesthetic, but by action.

For Prada, garments hold greater significance under this light, not just an end-product, but a savoire-faire for the House; a journey through time and place where textiles, codes, motifs and embroideries become representative of more than just fabric manipulation, but instead become imbued with a lifetime of memory, skill and care.

 

 

For Prada's Fall Winter 23 collection, the language of evening wear was being transformed; notions of the familiar and the exceptional being intertwined to create something entirely novel. The white wedding dress – a symbol of love – became everyday attire, paired with sweaters as a new form of pedestrian dressing.

The House also found inspiration in the uniforms of those who spend their lives caring for others – a notion that prompted the collection's name, ‘Taking Care’. Elevated uniforms met with re-shaped, cocooning and classically tailored outerwear, taking cues from menswear silhouettes and using leather and suede to form protective clothing. Intricate flowers – symbolic of affection – are painstakingly appliquéd to garments by hand, adding another layer to this gesture of care.

 

 

This philosophy extended to the space in which Prada showed their collection – the Deposito of the Fondazione Prada – where a moving ceiling reengineers dimensions, oscillating between reducing and amplifying the room. Floral decals, previously concealed in their industrial forms, are uncovered, a revelation that prompts further reconsideration of both space and one's movements within it.

Watch Prada's intricate floral embroideries come to life, an homage to the craft of their ateliers, and of finding beauty in the process.