Miuccia Prada’s radical dedication to the skirt

The skirt to Prada is what the trench coat is to Burberry and the Bar jacket is to Dior; a defining silhouette that has underpinned every collection since co-creative director Miuccia Prada took over her family business in the late 1970s.

Prada has never wavered in her devotion to the skirt and has rarely been spotted wearing anything else but an A-line cut. “The skirt is like a T-shirt,” she said in a 2006 interview on Charlie Rose which gained new legs online after Prada’s skirt-focused show opened Milan Fashion Week.

For Prada, skirts are the basis for building everything else –– shirt, sweater, you name it. “I’m much more interested in them than trousers,” she continued. “I always say that women wearing trousers are more interested in having their bag looking good, and with a skirt you can do so much more, you can put so much more creativity.”

And so the Italian fashion house did what it does best on Tuesday, with a Spring-Summer 2027 collection simply titled: “The Skirt.” Below the waist it was a one-track mind, with not a dress, trousers or shorts among the 63 looks. The hyper-focused runway collection was “an exercise of exploration inside strict parameters,” said Prada and her co-creative director, Raf Simons, in the show notes.

The skirt (fashion loves a singular noun) came pleated in muted hues of gray and black, with flashes of fluorescent panels. It was layered and ruched with bows; printed with graphic sketching; dip-dyed to resemble a Rothko painting; and embroidered all over with crystals. On most, delicate jewels were appliquéd to industrial Velcro to provide a point of subversion –– a pre-requisite in every Prada collection.

“There is a lot of illogical behavior –– which is an important notion, in Prada as a whole and this collection specifically,” said Simons.

The creative duo was “fascinated by the way Prada skirts, not alone but in particular, stand the test of time,” added Simons. “Their eccentricity, their form, their decoration – there is something lasting in their design language.” After years of tailored trousers and tracksuit bottoms dominating trends, the skirt is having a resurgence. The global skirts market is projected to grow almost 6.5% year-on-year to 2033 ; partly driven by an industry shift away from the muted tones of “quiet luxury,” and towards a more playful and diverse wardrobe. Though not without fiercely dividing opinion.

On one hand, designer Dario Vitale’s popular one-and-only collection for Versace in February (he departed shortly after the Prada Group acquired the brand and has just been appointed as the late Giorgio Armani’s successor at Emporio Armani) produced the skirt of the season: a pencil number bearing Warhol-inspired prints. On the other, the industry-favorite podcast, “An Excellent Fit” recently declared “the death of the skirt.” In the episode, the Financial Times’ “HTSI” editor Jo Ellison revealed she had simply eliminated skirts from her wardrobe because they were “too hard.” With their various lengths, and accompanying styles of shoes, “they require so much thought about what goes with them and how to put on the top,” added Ellison. “They’re just not worth the time or investment.”

For Prada, it is this very complexity that makes skirts so attractive creatively. “With individual garments, you can combine ideas,” she said. “Each skirt can also be entirely reinvented by every person who wears it, through its combinations and juxtapositions with other pieces. They can transform its meaning. The skirt is an object that is contemporary, because it is flexible, adaptable. It invites contradiction.”

For Prada and Simons, “The Skirt” wasn’t about creative reduction. Instead, their hero item became an ideal vehicle for personal expression.

裙子之于 Prada，正如风衣之于 Burberry，Bar 夹克之于 Dior；自 20 世纪 70 年代末联合创意总监 Miuccia Prada 接管家族企业以来，这种标志性的廓形一直是每一季系列的基础。

Prada 对裙子的热爱从未动摇，她几乎从未穿过除 A 字裙以外的任何款式。“裙子就像 T 恤一样，”她在 2006 年接受 Charlie Rose 采访时说道。这段话在 Prada 以裙装为主题的米兰时装周开幕秀之后，再次在网络上广为流传。

对普拉达来说，裙子是打造其他一切的基础——衬衫、毛衣，等等。“比起裤子，我对裙子更感兴趣，”她继续说道。“我常说，穿裤子的女性更注重包包的搭配，而裙子则能让你拥有更多发挥创意的空间。”

于是，这家意大利时装屋周二再次展现了其最擅长的风格，发布了名为“裙装”的2027春夏系列。从腰部以下来看，整个系列都围绕着裙装展开，63套造型中没有一件连衣裙、裤子或短裤。Prada和她的联合创意总监Raf Simons在秀场笔记中表示，这场高度聚焦的T台秀是“在严格限制下进行的一次探索”。

这条裙子（时尚界偏爱单数名词）以柔和的灰色和黑色为主色调，饰以褶裥，并点缀着荧光色拼接。它层叠交错，饰以蝴蝶结；印有图案素描；采用浸染工艺，宛如一幅罗斯科的画作；并缀满水晶刺绣。大多数裙子上，精致的珠宝被贴在工业风的魔术贴上，营造出一种颠覆性的反叛感——这几乎是每季普拉达系列的必备元素。

西蒙斯说：“Prada整体上以及这个系列中都存在很多不合逻辑的行为——这是一个重要的概念。”

西蒙斯补充道，这对创意二人组“着迷于Prada裙装经久不衰的魅力，尤其是裙装本身。它们的奇特风格、廓形和装饰——其设计语言中蕴含着某种永恒的特质。”在经历了多年剪裁合身的裤装和运动裤主导潮流之后，裙装正在强势回归。预计到2033年，全球裙装市场将以每年近6.5%的速度增长；部分原因是行业风向的转变，即从低调的“静谧奢华”转向更加活泼多元的风格。尽管如此，这种转变也引发了激烈的争论。

一方面，设计师达里奥·维塔莱 (Dario Vitale) 二月份为范思哲 (Versace) 设计的独家系列大获成功（他在普拉达集团收购该品牌后不久便离开了范思哲，并刚刚被任命为​​已故乔治·阿玛尼 (Giorgio Armani) 的继任者，执掌安普里奥·阿玛尼 (Emporio Armani)），该系列中诞生了本季最流行的裙子：一条饰有沃霍尔风格印花的铅笔裙。另一方面，备受业​​内人士喜爱的播客节目“An Excellent Fit”最近却宣布“裙子已死”。在这一集中，《金融时报》“HTSI”栏目编辑乔·埃里森 (Jo Ellison) 透露，她已经把裙子从衣橱里彻底剔除了，因为裙子“太难搭配了”。埃里森补充道，裙子的长度各异，搭配的鞋子款式也很多，“需要花很多心思去考虑什么来搭配，以及上衣该怎么穿。它们真的不值得花费时间和金钱。”

对普拉达而言，正是这种复杂性赋予了裙子如此强大的创意魅力。“单件服装可以融合各种理念，”她说道，“每条裙子都可以通过与其他单品的搭配和组合，被穿着者彻底重新诠释。他们可以改变裙子的意义。裙子之所以具有当代性，是因为它灵活多变，适应性强。它本身就蕴含着矛盾。”

对普拉达和西蒙斯而言，“裙子”并非意味着创意上的简化。相反，他们的标志性单品成为了个人表达的理想载体。