the real and imaginary unfold at the prada SS25 menswear show

inside the oma/amo-designed fairytale ravescape

The Prada SS25 menswear show by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons offers a discourse around contemporary notions of truth and pretence, the real and unreal. Here, the audience is encouraged to question the actuality of what they perceive, to reconsider, to look at things closer. In a fairytale ravescape designed by OMA/AMO, and invented within the Deposito of Milan’s Fondazione Prada, people are brought together. A white hut, the simplest structure, stands nearby as a totem of the essential, the necessary, the real, reflected in clothes that are uncontrived and direct. Linked to the totem is a walkway that bends and curves downard, reaching the official walkway. ‘A utopian conceit, here the imaginary can propose a new reality,’ shares the brand.

image courtesy Prada Group

perception and emotion collide at prada SS25 menwear show

For this SS25 menwear show, titled Closer, the team at Prada and OMA/AMO (see more here) explore how closeness reflects emotion – the human urge for proximity, to share space and commune. To be closer also shifts perception. Viewed from afar, pieces can pretend to be other – details may seem simplistic, naïve, but up-close, physically, perceptions transform. Clothes with wired details animate collars and hems with an unreal dynamism, as if alive themselves. Purposefully creased, patinated, aged, garments bear traces of time – imperfection another sign of living, of reality.

image courtesy Prada Group

‘Pieces stolen from father or mother sit differently on the body. Exaggerated proportions, deliberately long or cropped, are instinctively combined – a superhero sweater transposed to a new context. Bernard Buffet paintings appear, printed like a concert t-shirt. Items from different origins are juxtaposed in unanticipated contrasts, but with consideration, a deliberate and careful spontaneity. There is a spirit of freedom, of youthful optimism and energy,’ reflect Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons on their Prada SS25 menwear show

image: still, courtesy Prada’s Menswear Spring/Summer 2025 Fashion Show