The Prada Spring/Summer 2024 Menswear Show, a collaboration between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, redefines fluid architecture around the human body.
Prada’s men’s collection for Spring/Summer 2024 was unveiled at Milan Fashion Week, with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons returning with an ever-so-sleek and slimy offering for the season. During the performance, slime dripped from the ceiling. Prada’s showroom architecture changes with each season, but never so drastically as for Spring-Summer 2024 menswear.
The collection on display was viewed via a wall of clear falling slime — a type of fluid architecture — that accumulated in mounds of green foam on the iron grate runway. The kinetic building served as a metaphor for a collection aiming to convey the fluidity of menswear.
The theme of fluidity extends beyond the clothing itself. The site of the show, the Fondazione Prada’s Deposito, becomes a visual image of fluidity framing the human figure. Abstract barriers elicit fluid interruptions, providing an ever-shifting enfilade through which models fluidly move, highlighting the transforming character of the clothing and people who wear them.
A ring of industrial lighting illuminated the industrial environment. Models walked down a runway surrounded by ever-shifting “walls” made of 3,000 kg of slime that rained from the ceiling and produced green pools on the floor. The goal of the design was to give the industrial area an organic feel and transform the audience’s impression of it.
The collection itself was called Fluid Form and explored fluid architecture around the human body. Both the aluminium structure and the slime used for the show will be recycled.
“The concept of fluidity framing the human form again expands, represented through the show space in the Deposito of the Fondazione Prada.” Prada said. “Abstract walls are evoked through fluid interruptions, forming an ever-shifting enfilade through which the model’s process.”
According to Prada founder Miuccia Prada and the brand’s co-creative director Raf Simons, the Fluid Form collection was designed to break away from traditional rigid tailoring and offer a more fluid and liberating experience. The collection aims to create a constant awareness of the body within and its liberation, as stated by Prada herself.
“The ultimate aim is a constant awareness of the body within and its liberation,” Prada said.
The soft and squishy leather bags, looser interpretations of structured shirts, and decorative pockets and corsages are examples of the fluidity in design that the Fluid Form collection offers. The collection aims to reflect the natural state of humanity, with dynamic movement and constant transformation, according to the brand.
“These clothes are ultimately reflective of our natural state – the dynamic movement and constant transformation inherent to humanity,” the brand added.
“The shirt is a point of departure, its structure and details borrowed as a base to transform an entire stable of menswear – suits, raincoats, active sportswear, reporter jackets. Reconsidered construction, re-constructed. Beginning with simplicity, the collection proposes a notion of expansion, amplification of an idea – a paradox between silhouette and materiality. The ultimate aim is a constant awareness of the body within, and its liberation.” – From Prada.
As regards accessories, Prada’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection features bright materials that contrast and complement the silhouettes of the garments. The bags, backpacks, and shoes come in vibrant hues, such as red and purple, contrast with the more neutral tones of the outfits.
The colour palette throughout the collection is consistent soft tones paired with more saturated hues. For example, where the outfit is black, the sunglasses are brown.
