Change is in the air at Prada. A decade ago, during the Fall 2008 shows, Jourdan Dunn broke barriers by becoming the first black model to walk the house’s Milan runway since 1997, following in the footsteps of Naomi Campbell. Since then, the brand has embraced the concept of diversity, utilizing young men and women of colour from across the globe in its shows and advertising campaigns.
At today’s AW 2018 show, Prada hit another milestone by opening with Anok Yai, the Sudanese model and viral star, who stepped out in a puffer trench—making her the first black woman since Campbell to lead one of the brand’s influential casts.
With this collection, Miuccia Prada jolted her fashion audience into the realms of performance art; a feminist statement, mashing the bourgeois clothes of her brand signatures to produce a vision which she described as “for the strength of women going out in the violence. My dream,” she said, “is for women to be able to go out in the street and not be afraid. I wanted to have the freedom exaggerated.”
It also provokes questioning. The use of so many unsustainable man-made fabrics is a big one. In that, it mirrors the menswear collection Prada put out a few weeks ago. Art is art, but fashion is the bigger culprit in damaging the planet. How good it would be to see Miuccia Prada begin to turn her creative intelligence to that subject.
