What does elegance look like today? Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons were interested in fleshing that out without resorting to tired cliches rooted in mid-century couture tropes or Carolyn Bessette Kennedy-esque cosplay. As they began work on their spring/summer 2026 collection, the designers felt like there was too much going on—both in fashion, specifically, and in the world at large. In their show notes, they called it an “overload of contemporary culture”. Their response was to strip things back, and rethink how familiar things can be made new. 

First, they went back to basics. Uniforms are an obsession for both designers, so they opened with  no-nonsense, double-pocketed shirts and straight-cut, pleated trousers in policeman-navy and hospital-scrubs-blue. Minimal, sure, but not austere thanks to the opera gloves, ladylike bags and fine jewels they were styled with. Those accents were a constant throughout the collection, gestures of old-school elegance recontextualised for now. 

From there, the designers went on to explore more unconventional constructions and compositions. There were bras that were only bras in shapes—they hung loosely off the body, providing no support—as well as skirts suspended from shoulders instead of waists. The latter drooped so low they exposed the bloomers worn underneath them. Something evoking womanhood combined with something vaguely childlike—that was one of those unusual juxtapositions. Fashion is always obsessed with the new and the next, but few designers ever deliver something truly new. Those abstractions of skirts and bras, on the other hand, were genuinely novel—their somewhat awkward proportions forcing viewers and wearers to question form and function. 

As always at Prada, and especially in a collection centred on femininity, the skirts were a particular highlight. There were wrap versions composed of panels in many different fabrics—wool and lace and ruffled satin all in one piece—but they were constructed in a way that felt light and unfussy. There were also crinkly bubble skirts that can be twisted and shaped whichever way the wearer wants to. Bubble and wrap skirts are conventional feminine markers, but there was nothing conventional about how Prada and Simons deployed them, worn with everything from tough leather jackets, to preppy polos and cardigans, to sober grey suiting. Elsewhere, full-skirted ‘50s silhouettes came in industrial cotton drill, while lustrous duchesse satins were paired with humble cottons and nylons.   

Model POLLY DOMASHYCH/Mannequin
Make-up Artist CLARENCE LEE
Hairstylist SEAN ANG
Photographer's Assistant RJ TEO