The Prada Man
Prada's successful AW25 show in Milan for men's fashion week showcases the evolution of the brand's menswear with a move away from traditional, straight fitting lines to more risque mixes of styles. What has evolved into a wide-ranging, more encompassing collection expands upon Prada's move towards creative freedom that involves experimentation with pairing contrasting fabrics.
A model walks down the runway at the Prada Autumn/Winter 2025 menswear presentation in Milan wearing full Prada. Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Gorunway.com, and made available via Hypebeast. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Prada AW25 revealed a new side to the brand’s menswear this season: industrial meets raw complexity in a love letter to “savage elegance”. For their AW25 presentation at Milan Men’s Fashion Week, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons brought together a combination of elements that are seemingly out of the norm for Prada’s traditionally styled, tightly pressed menswear. In a theme that centers around intuition rather than thought, Prada and Simons emphasize an opposition to the technological advancements of artificial intelligence as Prada spoke to moving back to emotion in humanity.
Set in an intimate industrial scaffold complex against a blue floral carpet, the show pursued unexpected combinations of incompatible fabrics that were manipulated into being compatible. Cigarette pants tucked over cowboy boots were heavily featured, with many boots obviously very worn in colors ranging from bright red to a pastel floral print. Faux fur was intermixed with long trenches, with one sweater draped with a faux fur vest while another look featured a fur-trimmed hood. Floral details made an appearance alongside the curious phenomena of tiny basketball charms sprinkled throughout.
The show is a sharp shift away from the romanticism and somewhat conventional styles of the past. Take, for example, the interpretation of the tailored suit in the brand's AW23 collection. The presentation consisted almost entirely of the traditional cigarette pant paired with a variety of pressed blazers, both long and short, and the occasional bomber jacket. SS25 reimagined a similar archetype in menswear, albeit with wider trousers and tight sweaters over collared button downs.
Models walk the runway of Prada’s first menswear collection in 1998 in Milan for Milan Men’s Fashion Week. The show displayed a monochrome color palette while embracing tradition in various suit jackets, trousers and coats. Available via Prada. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The Prada man has always had a distinct look to him: classical, yet distinct. Prada first delved into menswear in Milan in 1998 for Milan Men’s Fashion Week, showing for the launch of its Spring/Summer 1998 collection. The collection set the tone for the future of the brand’s menswear in a minimalist take on monochrome - traditional workwear with the occasional short sleeve button up or parka jacket. The emphasis of a toned down color pattern contrasted with the continuing trends of bright, bold and dangerous stemming from the ‘80s that continuously trickled down into womenswear until the early 2000s.
Conventional silhouettes continued to persist in the subsequent menswear collections as fashion entered the turn of the century. 14 of the first 16 looks of the Fall/Winter 2000 collection featured single breasted blazers, six of them in pinstripes of varying shades. The brand began to play with textures, as seen in the few fur coats and vest near the end of the presentation, and bolder colors were embraced with bright yellow and red making an appearance in trenches, bags and gloves.
Models in head to toe Prada present Prada’s Spring/Summer 2003 menswear collection in Milan for Milan Fashion Week. The show favored relaxed silhouettes over tailored suits in the first efforts towards revolutionizing the brand. Available via Prada. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The idea of unorthodox style begins to unravel, and the brand takes steps in experimenting with more casual forms in 2003. While the suit and tie are very much still embedded within Prada, a playfulness emerges as the brand takes on shorts and the draw to shorter hems. Mini shorts were paired with patterned button ups, blazers were worn with no shirts and bunched up frill necklaces made an appearance. The Prada man is not one to be ignored, and the collection makes use of his reputation to step up and show out.
Prada throughout the 2010s was very on brand while also taking on the occasional blockbuster. In a stroke of genius, the brand nabbed Gary Oldman, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe and Tim Roth amongst other Hollywood ‘villains’ to star in their Fall/Winter 2012 menswear collection during Milan Men’s Fashion Week in a literal take on The Devil Wears Prada. The stage was set against a sea of red in a court that embodied the power of the male antihero. Thick, double breasted coats in reds and black accessorized with round shaded glasses and large brooches came together in an otherworldly display of Prada at its peak. The crisp tailoring coupled with high collars and impeccable marketing launched Prada to the top of the menswear food chain.
Tim Roth, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe and Jamie Bell star in Prada’s Fall/Winter 2012 menswear campaign while walking for the brand’s presentation during Milan Men’s Fashion Week. Photos by Gamma-Rapho, courtesy of Getty Images, made available via WWD. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Prada’s latest menswear collection is a clear deviation from the path that has been rooted in the brand’s traditional past. The evolution of the idea of what embodies Prada man has shaped into a celebration of innovation and elasticity in this year’s collection. Prada brings a fresh dose of perspective to the changes the industry is experiencing with the rise of AI, and while they seem to embrace traditional motifs while isolating themselves from the innovations in tech, the advancements in styling say otherwise.
What we see is a peak into what to expect from Prada heading into 2025. A bolder, bigger brand that's unafraid of taking risks in an era that's reverting back to old trends and familiar territory. An upscale pajama set styled with a basketball charm bracelet and cowboy boots seamlessly contrasts the previous look of a pink and green plaid trench over a crew neck - a combination Prada never would have entertained prior to 2019. It's evident that the brand is attempting to challenge the norms it has lodged within menswear by taking it upon themselves to modernize the unexpected. Creative freedom and constructive pairing have taken center stage in Prada’s move to reinvent its menswear - and it's clearly working if the all leather suit sans shirt is any indication.
