Prada Refines Its Outlook for Spring/Summer 2020

Prada is one of the brands you have to look closely at to see the ingenuity of its designer Miuccia Prada because she works in the vernacular of the banal. It’s kind of her “thing”, like transforming unpretentious nylon canvas into one of the world’s most sought after bags.

For Spring/Summer 2020, it was cloche hats, linen dresses, simple longline jackets, and seashell necklaces – the stuff a gamine girl might pack for a summer vacation spent at the boardwalk in Jersey City. But there was a lot more going on than that. There always is. With a scaled-back approach to styling (Prada tends to pile on the accessories for its runway shows), the appealing simplicity of the clothes became the show’s thesis.

The appealing simplicity of the clothes became the show’s thesis.

“You wear the outfit, don’t let the outfit wear you,” the show notes declared and, with that, the presentation was off. While billowing volumes have enveloped the Spring/Summer 2020 runways elsewhere, Prada’s lines were long and lean, fitted nicely to the body, emphasizing the waistline – back to basics as it were.

Simple separates and soft dresses formed the nucleus of the collection, but they were not without the occasional touches of embellishment and kaleidoscopic prints to break up the surface tension. It was a thoughtful way of designing, especially when others in the fashion industry seems to be out-shouting each other for notice.