TALK OF THE RUNWAY

This has to be the longest conversation in fashion. Spring/ Summer 24 marks the fourth year that Raf Simons is collaborating with Miuccia Prada as co - designer of her mega- brand Prada.

Sharing creative directorship with another fashion luminary was unprecedented before the two got together, and especially unimaginable during Covid- 19’ s disruptive times. Neither Simons nor Mrs Prada sketched nor draped materials on mannequins to enable visualisation of concepts. So, how did the partnership become so successful that the Prada brand recorded a 12 per cent rise in net sales last year, and it consistently ranks among the top five shows in Milan Fashion Week?

“We start with dialogue,” reveals Simons. “We talk about last season, we talk about ideas and feelings, and out of that we start small things to grow. But everything starts with dialogue.” Mrs Prada concurs, adding: “That’s what makes a good designer.”

As a matter of fact, the collaboration started with conversations. In their first collection for Spring/ Summer 21 that explores the relationship between man and machine, the pair met – seated 2m apart as this was during the pandemic – for a post virtual- show teleconference, where they took questions from a global audience. They followed up with the Spring/ Summer 2021 campaign titled Dialogues, which posed questions to viewers who could respond via Prada. com.

After the duo’s second digital fashion show for Autumn/ Winter 21, they hosted Prada Intersections, where they discussed the collection with thought leaders from different creative fields. These include leading lights such architect and writer Rem Koolhaas and electronic musician and DJ Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman.

If communication is an art, Mrs Prada and Simons are certainly well- versed in the incredible power of open conversations.