How does the Prada show play with contemporary fashion?

The most successful collaboration between Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada

It has now been five years since Raf Simons joined Miuccia Prada at the helm of Prada’s menswear and womenswear collections. Five years of prolific collaborations that have shaped wardrobes praised for both their relevance and innovation.

Season after season, the pair have crafted looks that address current themes, such as femininity. But also viral trends, like the retro aesthetics or slim cuts reminiscent of Indie Sleaze. In short, hardly anything has escaped their incisive and complementary vision.

For their Spring/Summer 2026 collection, which marked half a decade of collaboration, the creative duo presented a complete, successful collection. This season, the two minds engaged in perfect harmony and found a balance that is hard to achieve. You just have to take a look at the sophisticated silhouettes to be convinced.

One look features a cinched apron dress with a ruffled underskirt – highly representative of Miuccia Prada’s signature uniform. It is paired with long purple gloves that contrast with the neon green dress, two details characteristic of Raf Simons’s world – which he notably developed at Jil Sander and later at Dior.

Together, the two designers play on their clothes and respective codes alike in this sublime collection. This exercise in stylistic discipline reaches new heights through silhouettes where straight skirts and cardigans inspired by Miuccia meet Raf Simons’s long leather gloves, elegant jumpsuits and subversive suspender skirts.

The Spring/Summer 2026 show: Fighting minimalism with colours

If this collaboration between Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada is so successful, it is largely thanks to the use of dissonant colour combinations. The neon, chromatic palette stands in sharp contrast to the trends that have recently dominated the Fashion Weeks. From the rock-inspired Indie Sleaze style to the wave of quiet luxury, bursts and clashes of colours were nowhere to be found. Signs of rebellion had already appeared last Fall/Winter 2025–2026 season at Balenciaga and Tom Ford, or, more recently, at Burberry. But nothing as audacious and unapologetic as the Prada Spring/Summer 2026 show.

The orange floor of the runway, clashing with the concrete of the Doric columns of the venue, set the tone of the show right from the start… A nod to the neon craze that swept fashion in the early 2010s. Yet, the approach here is original, setting Prada apart from its peers. Purple paired with neon green, red with lilac, pale green with canary yellow and orange, blue with burgundy… These surprising combinations are above all irresistibly pleasing. They breathe new life into a fashion landscape that have, one might say, grown somewhat dull and repetitive lately.