Milan Men's Fashion Week: Prada means business

For AW20 Prada means business. The head down, do your job, ignore the chaos kind of business. Nothing highlighted this fact more than the models’ sensible haircuts: short, naturally floppy and free from anything coiffed. When you’re working hard, high maintenance hair is impractical.

A suit for all professions

Two and three-piece suits in masculine grey tones had only a peeping colour of a shirt collar to keep the look from flat. Because Mrs Prada is nothing if not cognizant of the narrative her collections speak.

Sleeveless woolen vests were worn over shirts and under boxy jackets. The latter had generous proportions, like amplified lapels and pocket flaps. There was colour here too, both in textile variation and hue, like deep red, cedar orange and sky blue.

Matching long sleeve tops with ruffled details and cotton trousers hinted at a uniform for workers who don’t wear suits. Thick-soled boots worn over trousers had labourer associations, perhaps Prada was referring to the plethora of professionals outside of high rise offices. There was even a look for a freelance creative, the young urbanite who might go for a graphic sweater or wooly trimmed vest.

The show ended with a series of top coats, double-breasted in sheep skin or melton, single-breasted in finer wool or an ultra luxe parka. Both the executive and working man have a need for an impeccably cut coat stripped of artifice.

On set, a cardboard cut-out statue of a man on a horse welcomed showgoers, a familiar sculpture on many an Italian piazza, though here it was meant to be “non-heroic.”

Backstage Prada explained to Vogue: “In the complication of the current time between the world going wrong or going better, I thought to give an indication that the only thing that makes me calm and optimistic is to give value to work, to give value to things that matter in our life and your work.”

Photos courtesy of Prada