Prada Spring 2026 Menswear: A New Soft Power

Prada’s Spring/Summer 2026 menswear show, held at the Deposito of Fondazione Prada in Milan, opened not with fanfare but with birdsong — a sonic cue that signalled the gentle recalibration of mood to come. Titled “A Change of Tone,” the collection by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons was a quiet rebellion, offering not dominance but delicacy, not spectacle but sensibility. “Sometimes it's good to reflect, and be a bit more calm,” Simons mused — and reflect they did, in a stripped-back show space marked only by flower-shaped shag rugs and an instinctive, almost childlike ease.

This season, Prada’s take on masculinity was one of reduction and reimagination. Traditional signifiers of power dressing — tailored trousers, sharp shoulders, rigid structure — were softened or undone. The first model walked out in an illustrated camp-collar shirt layered over a baby blue turtleneck and paired with khaki bloomer shorts. These bloomers, with elastic hems and popper pockets, reappeared throughout the show, playfully recalling childhood while also nodding to a certain subversive chic. It was clothing with a wink: suggestive but never overstyled.

Silhouettes throughout walked a fine line between innocence and irony. Elongated shirts and printed cotton smocks sometimes revealed bare thighs, suggesting the models had arrived half-dressed from a summer swim — or a dream. There were moments of military precision (submariner sweaters, epauletted shirts) that were promptly diffused with bold or pastel colours and daisy florals. Each piece felt like a distillation, not a declaration — garments that invited curiosity rather than demanded attention.

Colour, too, was treated with emotional intelligence. While navy, grey and soft black anchored the more structured tailoring, the broader palette sang in sugary pastels and outdoor brights. Mint green, buttercup yellow, and powder pink mingled with bolder jolts of cobalt, tomato red and citrus green — hues that conjured not power but pleasure. Even the house’s iconic nylon bags shed their all-black skin for two-tone, almost hiking-inspired colourways. This wasn’t just surface-level joy: it was colour as a tool of disarmament.

Accessories extended this light-hearted spirit — plimsoll sneakers, driving shoes, sliders and raffia hats with centrifuge fringing offered the kind of summer eccentricity one might pack for an imagined utopia. Meanwhile, slogans on badges and T-shirts (“Lover’s Lake,” “Last Swim,” “Peak’s End”) evoked wistful postcards from emotional landscapes rather than geographic ones.

Despite the playfulness, there was an underlying discipline to the design. Simons noted this was “the easiest collection I have ever done,” and yet Mrs. Prada was quick to remind us: simplicity is not simplicity of effort. The perfect cotton trouser, she insisted, takes more precision than something overly complicated. The collection embodied that paradox: effort hidden behind ease, construction behind collapse.

This was not a conceptual show in the usual Prada sense. It was instinctive, collaborative, and human. Everything worked with everything, Simons and Prada agreed — a kind of sartorial democracy where clothing wasn’t meant to intimidate but to relate. There was an honesty to this season’s lightness, as if both designers had stepped away from the noise and simply asked: what feels right?

With Spring/Summer 2026, Prada quietly proposed a new masculine ideal — one rooted not in dominance but in delicacy, not in performance but in personal truth. The garments didn't shout; they spoke in murmurs. This was fashion in a softened register, tuned to emotion and ease, offering not answers but invitations: to wear, to feel, to wander. In a season defined by subtlety, Prada proved that sometimes the most radical thing fashion can do is simply breathe.