Equally subversive, co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons talk Afua Hirsch through the cross-pollination process behind their new collection for Prada.
Equally subversive, equally unpredictable, equally attuned to the contradictions of the cultural moment, co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons talk Afua Hirsch through the cross-pollination process behind their new collection for Prada – modelled here by four of our most electrifying actors. Styled by Edward Enninful. Photographed by Rafael Pavarotti.
Miuccia Prada does not like collaborations. “I’ve been asked to do a collaboration since ages!” she exclaims, in heavily accented English. “They always seemed to be just about selling more – about clichés, banality, and not about ideas. I was never interested.”
She is sitting in her Milan office alongside her new counterpart, Prada co-creative director Raf Simons, as I count contradictions. Even without the presence of Simons here in the nerve centre of Prada HQ, however, it is clear to any devotee that what’s happened to the label is most definitely a collaboration: since February 2020, when the partnership was first announced – prompting great surprise and intrigue – the fingerprints of both designers have been stamped all over the Prada collections, as plain to see as the omnipresent triangular logo.
The pair has so far produced two women’s collections. Spring/summer ’21 (launched via a Covid-era live-streamed show last September) was a tightly curated series of minimalist silhouettes, structured skirts and playful fabrics. Among the wearable monochrome prints and clutched anoraks, the collection delivered a new Prada classic: a glamorous A-line skirt with an airline seatbelt waist – which somehow managed to be both Miuccia Prada, PhD, and sculptural showstopper Simons – irresistibly paired with irreverent punctured turtlenecks.
In February, the house revealed an autumn/winter ’21 collection – seen here on some of the new generation of screen actors – that offered an endless dialogue between looks that veered between psychedelic colour and optimistic sensuality, between defensive armour and purple, patterned platform boots.
Jessie Mei Li wears a Prada coat, $12,000, and turtleneck, $1,470.
Simone Ashley
“I love the gloves!” exclaims Simone Ashley of this look. “Why are gloves so sexy?” This bodes well. Ashley, 26, may be best known as mean queen Olivia in Netflix’s Sex Education, but soon the Surrey-born, LA-dwelling actor will be donning gloves (and bonnet) as the new lead in series two of hit costume drama Bridgerton – watched by 82 million households and counting. How does it feel? “The entire cast and crew have been working so hard,” she says. “I try not to think too much about what’s next. I find it easier to be grateful … and just give it all I’ve got.”
Simone Ashley wears a Prada dress, $4,300, bag, from $2,850, gloves, $1,510, and boots, $2,440.
Emma Corrin
What ‘new beginning’ is Emma Corrin, 25, most looking forward to this season? “Pretending I’m going back to school and buying myself bouquets of sharpened pencils,” says the actor, with trademark whimsy. Of course, Corrin is too modest to mention upcoming film projects, although she will next star opposite Harry Styles in 1960s-set My Policeman before taking up duties as Lady Chatterley in a new big-screen adaptation of the DH Lawrence classic. Ever since playing Diana, Princess of Wales, with eerie accuracy in The Crown, Corrin has been a star to watch, as well as a captivating red-carpet presence (remote, or otherwise). “Colour, sophistication and imagination all mixed into one,” Corrin coos of the Prada collection.
Emma Corrin wears a Prada coat, $4,650, sweater, $1,470, turtleneck, $1,470, bag, $4,450, gloves, $1,510, and boots, from $2,240.
Prada coat, $9,200, skirt, $3,550, and bag, $3,200.
Prada stole, $2,060, dress, $14,000, gloves, $1,210, and boots, from $2,240.
Jessie Mei Li
“I’ve had a lot of time to myself this past year, which I really needed,” says Jessie Mei Li of preparing for her next chapter, namely: fame. From her lead performance as Alina Starkov in Netflix’s hit fantasy Shadow and Bone (series two is in the works), to her upcoming role in Edgar Wright’s film Last Night in Soho alongside Anya Taylor-Joy, 2021 marks the year the 25-yearold arrived. “I’m not one to plan ahead, but hopefully I’ll find myself in some interesting places,” she says. “I like not knowing what’s coming my way.”
Prada cardigan, $2,060, turtleneck, $1,470, skirt, $4,300, bag, $3,100, gloves, $1,510, and boots, from $2,240.
Prada coat, $17,500, turtleneck, $1,470, pants, $1,830, and gloves, $1,210.
Prada stole, $6,200, dress, $3,950, turtleneck, $1,400, and gloves, $1,210.
Prada coat, $5,200, poloneck, $1,470, turtleneck, $1,470, bag, $4,250, gloves, $2,130, and boots, $2,240.
Prada coat, $5,400.