Prada Spring/Summer 2022 Womenswear Show: Seduction, Stripped Down

A seduction through reduction. For their Spring/Summer 2022 Prada collection, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons consider ideas of seduction, of the expression of sexuality though clothing. A process of stripping down clothing leads, inevitably, to the body, emphasized or exposed.

Antecedents of clothing are explored, recontextualized. Pieces trace ideas and outlines of dress - the memory of a train, the bones of a corset, the curve of a brassiere. They are stripped to their bare essentials, their core. Their architecture is inherently tied to the body, and therefore to seduction.

An imprint of the past always shapes our present. Like shadows or memories of garments, the stitched bones or lacing of corsets form new pieces, abstracting from the body rather than holding it, skin bared beneath. The idea of a train is stripped back to a spontaneous gesture of couture silk. Each negate their traditional connotations of restriction - they are reconsidered, rethought, confronted. The body is freed.

A vocabulary of elegance of evening clothing is here translated to an entire wardrobe, its materializations - satin double, scarlet lace - used in unanticipated contexts. By shifting viewpoints, the meaning of these signs and signifiers are questioned. The fantasy inherent in evening wear is counterbalanced by the reality of the everyday.

Synchronous and simultaneous views epitomize the modern world: we observe, interact and communicate in a multitude of manners. The Spring/Summer 2022 Prada show is staged, simultaneously, in the Deposito of the Fondazione Prada, Milan and in Bund 1, Shanghai. Within corresponding decors, video screens engage each show in dialogue with the other, physical and virtual realities. They bring two groups of people, on two sides of the world, together in a modern community.