Prada posed some big questions about the perception of feminine clothing, during Milan Fashion Week. Co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons (formerly of Calvin Klein) interrogated the concept of femininity in Prada’s autumn/winter 2025 collection.
‘What does femininity mean today? How can it be defined?’ said the show’s notes. The collection explored society’s ‘collective perception of the typicality of femininity’ and how these perceptions are constantly, and erratically, changing.
Featuring deconstructed office wear, oversized shirts and mini skirts – the show was a rapid exploration into which clothes are considered ‘feminine’ today. The models were sent down the runway with messy hair and minimal make-up, juxtaposed with bow-adorned pencil skirts and pointed court heels.
The Italian fashion house is known for its avant-garde take on traditional fashion concepts, with its last spring/summer 2025 collection featuring alien headpieces and hole-embellished bucket hats, offering a disconcerting peep into the future of fashion.
This season, Prada and Simons were preoccupied with the idea of traditional femininity and the woman’s role in the workplace, presenting looser fitting shirts, creased suit trousers and oversized sheath dresses, taking the concept of ‘smart womenswear’ and turning it on its head.
The palette consisted of garish neon hues and eye-catching prints, drawing our eye immediately to the outfit before the model. Like many collections this season, Prada presented fur in various forms, evolving from the classic fur coat into a structured suit blazer – perhaps a piece that will be cropping up in offices later this year.
The show grappled with the tension between restraint and rebellion – pristine court heels paired with intentionally crumpled trousers, delicate bows offset by raw, unpolished beauty. Even fur, a symbol of old-world luxury, reimagined as structured blazers, was perhaps a nod towards a power shift in the way women dress for the workplace.
Stars sitting front row included French actor Juliette Binoche, 60, who wore a casual Prada striped sweatshirt and suede blazer. In true Prada style, the collection was a masterclass in subverting expectations, presenting a cerebral yet effortlessly chic concept of modern femininity.
Equal parts intellectual and wearable, the collection deconstructed traditional officewear and injected it with a sense of undone glamour – perhaps recalling the ‘brat girl’ aesthetic of the summer. In true Prada fashion, the collection left the audience asking the following questions: What does femininity look like today? And more importantly, who gets to define it?.
