What does femininity mean today? At Prada’s Fall/Winter show, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons don’t attempt to answer this question – they dismantle it, reshape it, and leave it hanging in the air like an unfinished thought. Inside the Deposito at Fondazoine Prada, amongst metal scaffolding and a Catherine Martin-designed carpet, femininity was neither celebrated nor rejected but interrogated. This season’s garments were a conversation in movement while examining the dwelling between rawness and strcuture. 

Courtesy of Prada

The show opened with a dress; rather than an emblem of femininity, this garment appeared haunted by an unmistakably feminine silhouette. The many dresses on the runway, typically the ultimate portrait of femininity, were deconstructed and rematerialized, their meanings transformed. Sleeves slipped off shoulders, skirts shifted out of alignment, and fabric clung unexpectedly, reflecting an ideal that perhaps femininity for Prada has slipped from its prescribed form and is resisting categorization. 

Courtesy of Prada

Despite being threatened by political authority, we live in an era where identity is fluid, and definitions are malleable. Prada’s vision of femininity is similarly unanchored. The garments’ proportions played tricks on the eye, providing a sense of movement and change mid-motion, as if garments had been caught in the process of evolution, mirroring the ever-morphing nature of womanhood. Many stand-out clothes were oversized, swallowing the models’ figures in flattering and governed ways. The muted tones, furs, and accessories worked beautifully in tandem to tell Prada’s story. 

Courtesy of Prada

However, these undefiable defining characteristics were contrasted with delicate bows and bejeweled accessories, standing out against many pieces’ raw and oversized nature. Large pearl buttons, jeweled chains flowing from necklines, large round fabric buttons, and bows studded the collection with many outstanding looks. This season’s collection was clearly a study of opposition, a deliberate play between expectation and defiance. Prada and Simons seemingly question femininity and showcase its multiplicity, contradictions, and refusal to be one thing at once. 

Courtesy of Prada

Even the space itself mirrored this dialogue. The industrial set clashed beautifully against the plush softness of the carpet under the models’ feet. Femininity, as presented by Prada, is not a fixed ideal but a state of flux—a series of possibilities and negotiation, raw and refined, structure and softness.