Shalt we men wear Prada post Abundance? Will the machines of loving grace have taste? If Gucci gave us Gotham chique and Dior sophisticated solar punk, then Prada Men’s is giving us the casual uniform of post abudance. If this is probably my most biased and colored writing on a show, it’s because Prada and Raf in particular are holding onto a post-modernesque view on fashion as metakunstwerk. I am triggered to dig deeper for an interpretation and what I see is the post abundance, where most of the elites are pseudo-technologists.
The red thread in the collection is the casual uniform with a slight edge, stripped away from most of the fuss. It’s a future when the elites aspire to dress as if they work for the Apple design team. Where most others are zagging and embracing maximalism, Raf is zigging by sticking to his roots and leapfrogging to the post abundance. We will inevitably find ourselves in a minimalist era in the future. Perhaps with the fight over scare resources behind us post abundance, we’ll all revert to the mean aesthetically. The elites in ancient Greece and ancient Rome all dressed very similar with a penchant for comfort. Fashion is about status and it wont be the first time in history where not individualism but conformity signals that you are part of the elite.
Mirella Malaguti