After the rave at Prada’s SS25 Menswear show back in June, it seems Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ comedown has them feeling philosophical. Today in Milan, the design duo behind Prada revealed their Spring/Summer 2025 Womenswear show, a collection that questioned the role of free will in a digital world dictated by algorithms. To summarise, Miuccia and Raf got deep: let’s get into it.
Today all eyes turned to the Fondazione Prada, the Milan-based location where the house unveils its bi-annual men’s and women’s collections, to see Prada’s SS25 Womenswear show. Joined by the regular array of A-listers that flock to Prada’s FROW each season, we stepped into the Fondazione Prada with the likes of Maya Hawke, Matthieu Blazy, Charli d'Amelio, ENHYPEN, and Letitia Wright.
Entering the building, we were expecting to see a similar showspace to the one that we saw back in June, given that Prada’s cycle of shows has developed a mechanical pattern in recent years, wherein each Menswear show debuts a runway design and a theme of that season, that the following Womenswear collection then copies.
Knowing that, we anticipated stepping inside the Fondazione Prada today to find sky-high walkways and a white tree-house reverberating with bass like at Prada’s SS25 Men’s show. But that wasn’t what was inside. Instead, we found the spacious room was blanketed with a muted, teal cloth, covering the whole floor and even draped over lines of benches that formed a twisting, narrow runway through the space.
Given that Prada’s SS25 Womenswear collection aimed to destroy algorithmic patterns, showing how innately human it is to be spontaneous, Prada broke every pattern in the book. Whilst most brands tend to repeat themselves in their collections, revealing the same look in different colours and materials to help with consistency, every single look on Prada’s runway was different, with little to no connection between them.
For that reason, it would take pages and pages to dissect every single one of Prada’s completely unique SS25 Womenswear looks, so we’ve instead opted to highlight our favourite parts of the collection. Here’s everything you need to know:
A different dress every time you blinked
Raf Simons said of Prada’s SS25 Womenswear collection that he thought of “each individual [look] as a superhero – with their own power, their own story,” and this was extremely evident when it came to the dresses we saw on the runway. No single dress was the same, each so unique that they hardly seemed to have come from the same collection.
The show opened with a mid-length, yellow, floral dress, with twisted, rigid sleeves that stood on end, but the femininity of this look contrasted distinctly with the grunginess of the look that followed: a grey dress adorned with solid, silver rings in an almost Mediaeval flair.
Both of these were unlike another standout dress from the collection, a tunic-style look in sparkling silver with Prada’s infamous “Passavela” circle cut-out details. And these too were all from a different genre than a dress covered in textured, black peacock feathers, which bounced as the model walked.
Outerwear from (almost) every era
Outerwear in particular channelled Prada’s effort to represent “elements from different eras coexisting simultaneously to challenge any theory of chronology,” as seen in a round-collared ‘60s-style leopard print jacket that contrasted with the casual air of an ‘80s-inspired highlighter-yellow windbreaker. In equal measures, both of these looks were completely different to the vibes of a black, leather trench coat and tailored grey blazer.
A skirt for literally any occasion
Prada continued to distort the algorithm with an array of dissimilar skirts, each bringing something new to the collection. The “Passavela” eyelets were evident on a shiny, A-line, silver skirt that felt reminiscent of Prada’s archives; however, other skirts appeared in pencil form with chain-link garters hanging from a high-waisted belt.
Similarly, a bright orange skirt with playful oversized pockets at the waist felt like it could have come from a different collection to the dark blue pleated skirt adorned with a white shoelace-style detail on the side.
Headwear unlike we’ve ever seen
Eyewear was gargantuan, alien, and unusual, debuting a myriad of silhouettes that we felt it honestly wasn’t enough to see once. Whilst some shades were similar to those on the runway at Prada’s SS25 Men’s show, which had lenses detailed with depictions of landscapes, from raves to mountains; others were unlike anything we’d seen before. Huge almost coffin-shaped lenses covered a few of the model’s entire faces, creating a futuristic bug-eyed effect.
Headwear was similarly unconventional, seen in the viser-style hats with circular cut-outs dotted across the front that models’ eyes peered through, whilst other pieces were worn like helmets with distorted shaped holes for the eyes. Another piece of headwear sat low on the forehead like a headband and draped black fringe the full way around its wearers head, which contrasted with the tight scarf-inspired headwraps in both silk and leather.
Shoes from the future and the past
Prada’s footwear offering reimagined the origami-style heels we saw on Prada’s FW24 runway, unfolding them and turning the paper-like points towards the model’s ankles. These were contrasted with pops of red on lace-up sneakers and, for fans of the Prada archive, the infamous platform brogues espadrilles from Spring 2011 made a return on Prada’s SS25 Womenswear runway, in bright rainbow hues, for better or for worse.
They weren’t the only shoe giving us déjà vu on the runway, as Prada also revived a few more of its archival fan favourites: Spring 1996’s leather cross-detailed sandals; the striped heels with architectural, pointed heels popularised at Fall 2008; and ultra-high heeled Mary Janes of Fall 2012, complete with the original rubber-capped toe that was so infamous at the time.
Overall, Prada’s Spring/Summer 2025 Womenswear show, in Miuccia Prada’s own words, aimed to make us consider “the idea of choice, of unpredictability as a measure of human creativity, of Prada for each individual.” And personally, we’d like to interpret this season as a cautionary tale against following the zeitgeist too closely.
By going against its own algorithm and breaking the norms that Prada has taught us to expect from its shows, the house has proven that it’s capable of dropping everything, switching up, and turning completely on its head at any moment. This season felt like Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons reminding us: don’t get too comfortable, you never know what we might do next.
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