Prada SS19 continues its exploration of complex femininity in a turbulent world

Miuccia Prada is continuing her mediation on the complexity of femininity - this time merging the design fields and inviting three female architects to design pieces from Prada's iconic nylon to sit alongside the SS19 collection.

Each season you can count on the visionary that is Miuccia Prada to reflect the current state of the world through the medium of fashion. Never one to shy away from politics and the bigger questions of what society looks like now, SS19 was no different. This time, Mrs P was still examining the complexity of a woman’s place in the world today, but also the shifting landscape and space between liberalism and extreme conservatism that has gripped some of the most powerful nations. “On one hand you wish for freedom, for liberation, for fantasy, and on the other you have this extreme conservatism,” she told reporters backstage. “I wanted to demonstrate the clash between those two opposites.”

The Prada show space with a take on inflatable chairs originally by Verner Panton

In the collection this took the form of good girl dressing gone rogue. Knitted jumpers were worn over shirts, both with cut out backs or keyhole fronts, while smock dresses were paired with sheer knee high socks and heels – Prada’s own rebellious school girls. Elsewhere the 60s was an evident influence – perhaps a nod to the women’s liberation movement and second wave feminism of that era – yet in the collection this threw up A-line shapes, buttoned up swing bags and exaggerated headbands, worn by every model. Bags too had a retro shape while eyelashes were reminiscent of Twiggy.

In a further nod to Miuccia’s dedication to supporting and empowering women this season three female architects were invited to meld the worlds of design and create new pieces from Prada’s iconic nylon. Cini Boeri, Elizabeth Diller and Kazuyo Sejima made up the latest in the Prada Invites series and each took up the challenge, creating pieces inspired by the qualities of the fabric that were shown alongside the collection. A fabric now synonymous with Prada, the utilitarian nylon was originally chosen as it juxtaposes traditional ideals of luxury, yet in the subsequent years has become a Prada staple and aspirational in itself, changing the conversation around what luxury fashion can be. Sounds radical? Well, we’d expect nothing less from Prada.