Neither Miuccia Prada nor Raf Simons has ever had any hesitation laying themselves bare. In the five years since their collaboration began, the two have drawn from each other’s strengths, whether that be Prada’s nerdy girlishness or Simons’s subverted elegance, creating a shared language that’s kept the fashion world enthralled. Without using the negative connotation of the term, the spring/summer 2026 runway presented the simplest version of that combination.

It’s one where utility is distilled down to the bare bones and clothing was displayed as is—a boilersuit is purely a boilersuit, a cargo button-down is just that. There were subtle details, an embellishment or a frill, yes, but many of the pieces were bold in their plainness. Nor was it a continuation of the overwhelmingly minimalist trend on the other runways, for these muted blues and heavy grays—even among the glossy tangerine set and brightly coloured interludes—took on a distinctly more somber feel that perhaps reflects Prada’s and Simons’s darkening worldview.

Maybe it’s a continuation of fall/winter 2024’s modern suffragette, who donned military caps and embodied the strength of her mid-century silhouettes or the frizzy-haired frustration exemplified by the fall/winter 2025 collection. Little is more austere in the face of today’s archive-obsessed, TikTok-commentary-driven fashion feeds than a boatneck dress straight off Florence Pugh in Don’t Worry Darling, even when also done in lime green and paired with purple leather opera gloves. Lab-like gray overcoats, skirts with built-in suspenders, and deep-V sweaters filtered out the white noise of contemporary culture and built the new uniform for the modern anti-internet woman.

Where colour did come through, the duo began to play. Easter egg-colored babydoll dresses with accented collars rested haphazardly over crinkled underskirts, again paired with elbow-length gloves. Cargo bloomers and paper-doll cutout bralettes felt perversely awkward, if not silly, but it’s nice to know that in all of the collection’s stoicism, even Prada and Simons can still play dress-up.

On the runway, the pair continue to strip back and pick away at the fluff that they see in the world. As they move farther away from internet clichés and the suffocating tides of pop culture, embellishments and frivolities also recede. Once you’ve been reduced to basics, then you can rebuild.

This article was first seen on ELLE US.