Hats off to Prada’s romantic nod to the past in Milan

Historical romance, with business in the front and boudoir in the back, turns heads, as Prada tells us ‘goodness is needed’

Prada, a brand synonymous with ugly-chic, usefulness and intellectualism, was feeling just a little loved up this season. “Romance and goodness is needed, especially at a time like this,” said Miuccia Prada backstage after the show, which took place at the Prada Foundation in Milan.

But Prada being Prada, this was not romcoms and red roses: this was romance with a healthy dollop of history. According to the show notes, “the past is an instrument, a tool for learning, used here to try to invent something new. Yet rather than an intellectual examination, this collection is an emotional reaction, to ideals of beauty that still feel resonant.”