Prada mixes nostalgia and grunge for summer 2023 menswear

MILAN (AP) — Reconciling unusually high temperatures with the looks for next summer on Milan Fashion Week runways is becoming an exercise in cognitive dissonance.

While nodding to sustainability, designers are nonetheless proposing looks that don’t jibe well with the longer summer heat waves, and instead seem to be focused on customers who either live in northern climates, who can count on cool evenings or air conditioning, or who just don’t care.

Some highlights from Sunday’s preview of mostly menswear for Spring-Summer 2023:

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PRADA’S GINGHAM NOSTALGIA

The Miuccia Prada-Raf Simons collaboration at Prada has been a proven success, generating recognizable pieces that grab attention and brand recognition from a distance. That is quite a feat for co-creators who joined forces just as the pandemic put the globe on lockdown, and which hasn't quite loosened its grip.

The silhouette for next spring and summer is studied and restrained, another easy read. It started with suits with hidden buttons, tapered skinny trousers down to pointy boots. The pair introduced boyish notes with striped ribbed or color-block knitwear. Oversized bags contributed to a sense of childhood, playing with grown-ups’ things.

Nostalgia came in the form of oversized gingham, recalling a kitchen tablecloth, traditionally a woman’s domain, in play against leather grunge: sleeveless short sets, and trenches, sometimes with a gingham trench layered in between.

Questions persist: How is this a summer wardrobe? Where exactly is this summer?

But judging from those in the fashion crowd in knit turtlenecks and leather coats, the question may be beside the point where Prada is concerned.

Backstage, Prada welcomed guests including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeff Goldblum and Rami Malek, herself wearing a cashmere gray...