Nature takes office-chic by storm at Prada

Let Prada handle transforming divisive shades like acid green and fluorescent orange into mainstream colors, bringing back skinny jeans and turtlenecks into fashion. This January, in the pulsating heart of Fondazione Prada, the creative direction of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons took a nostalgic turn, following the footsteps of the past decade's collections, bringing two worlds to the runway: nature and the computer. A room divided into cubicles with electric blue cardboard walls, the setting of Menswear FW24 evoked the impersonal spaces of old-fashioned offices, before open spaces and remote work. Beneath the soles of the shoes, covered with a layer of recycled Perspex, one could catch a glimpse of the typical flooring of a forest landscape, complete with moss and a small spring. The juxtaposition between the sterile office style and the irregularity of pebbles is a typical code of the Prada apocalyptic-artistic imaginary, but this time it seems to have been taken to the extreme. Are we facing an employee dreaming of freedom, or what we will see before the end of the world?

As the first looks appeared on the runway, Prada and Simons' message became clearer. Office suits with shirts in yellow and pale pink walked the first row of the runway, eliciting surprised looks from the audience. While the sartorial and geometric cut of Prada is always a feast for the eyes, it was impossible not to focus on the acid green, purple, and orange swimming pool headphones on the models' heads or the colorful-soled sandals that imitated typical children's beach footwear. The show, entirely dedicated to office wear, served as a stage for a new proposal of statement accessories. Large chain belts dominated the scene on knitwear and pants without loops, an accessory created by giant metal triangles that, as the models moved, created an optical illusion bringing more movement at waist level. The ties, thin strips of satin, distracted from the mundanity of Prada's new silhouettes, a phenomenon of contrasts between oversized English tweed jackets and enveloping trenches that almost formed cylindrical shapes. As usual, according to the Prada and Simons lexicon, the show transformed the looks of those who usually don't talk about fashion during coffee breaks into a surgical operation of surprising combinations. The headphones added brilliance to clothing otherwise completely devoid of eccentricity, while the layering, a direct quote from the latest Miu Miu collections, made the collection a bouquet of atypical shades, from yellow and purple to fluorescent orange and blue. Completely distracted by the quality of the new bags' leather and the unusual palette of the collection, few noticed that the show brought back to the runway all the forgotten pieces of Fashion Week, from turtlenecks to faded denim skinny jeans. There were even a couple of sailors, in captain's hat and sheepskin with golden buttons.

On one hand, the collection seemed like an ironic commentary on the times we are living in, reflecting a world trapped between the rigor of work and the search for leisure in nature by humans. On the other hand, the artistic duo Prada brought a premonition to the runway. How much time do we have before the Earth turns against us, and we find ourselves in deep water? For the guests of the fashion show, including the star of the maison's new campaign Troye Sivan, the actor from the reboot of Mean Girls, Christopher Briney, Jake Gyllenhaal, James McAvoy, Mamhood, and Louis Patridge, the focus was undoubtedly on the former - as their days don't exactly adhere to those of commuters stuck in a 9-to-5.