Dara and Mel Ottenberg Deconstruct Prada’s New Elegance

THURSDAY 8:06 PM SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 MILAN

For our September 2025 issue, Mrs. Prada and Raf Simons sat down to talk about the relevance of fashion. At their Spring Summer 2026 show, that conversation became a reality. To make sense of the limp silhouettes and colorful AI-like forms on the runway, our fashion director Dara gave Mel Ottenberg a call.

———

MEL OTTENBERG: Oh yeah, it’s recording—hey Dara. Where are you going?

DARA: I’m going to dinner with Jordan Hancock. 

OTTENBERG: I guess our conversation was supposed to be at 8 AM my time and not 2 PM my time. But—

DARA: That’s life. Speaking of getting times wrong, I thought the show was at one, so I was an hour early.  

OTTENBERG: Better than being late, I guess.

DARA: Definitely. I was able to get a cake and a cocktail at Bar Luce, which was a really nice pre-show vibe. And then we went into the venue and it was all orange lacquered floor and cement columns. The collection was very clean and pared back and colorful and kind of young. 

OTTENBERG: It is pretty young, isn’t it? I mean it’s like—

DARA: Little girl-isms. Prada always does that in a good way. 

OTTENBERG: I like it, it’s kind of giving me like a German girl.

DARA: It’s very German. 

OTTENBERG: Like it’s a bit… kinky.

DARA: It is.

OTTENBERG: It’s very naked. Is it naked?

DARA: Okay. So in person, I wasn’t really realizing the nakedness at first. With those two bras at the beginning, the skin is very apparent, but later they are very oversized and limp on the body.

OTTENBERG: Yeah.

DARA: They hang off the body and undulate when the models walk, which is really amazing because you’re like, “How is this staying on?” It feels like gravity-defying almost. It has like a kinkiness to it because all the clothes look like they’re falling off.

OTTENBERG: Who’s the chick that you see wearing this stuff? I really like this preppy look.

DARA: Those preppy shirts that kind of look like an Oxford shirt with a logo that everybody knows, but they’re done these like kind of cocooned—

OTTENBERG: Yeah, that’s hard. I really like that.

DARA: The Prada insignia is really—I don’t know if it’s the family crest, but it’s really chic. They’re kind of like polos turned into jackets but stiffer so they hold their shape. I also liked all those oversized things, like the crumpled bubble-looking dresses and skirts.

OTTENBERG: Wait, I’m really caught on this one now with the polo turned into this oversized thing—

DARA: The green one?

OTTENBERG: Yeah, it’s nuts.

DARA: It’s really crazy. And the glove, I don’t know if you can tell in that photo, but it’s like two flat pieces sewn together so the hand looks like it’s a cut-out when you lay it flat. It’s very lettuce. It’s freaky looking. 

OTTENBERG: The shoes are very comfortable.

DARA: Yeah, most of them are flats. There’s a couple of higher slingbacks.

OTTENBERG: Do girls know how to style themselves anymore? Do people know how to look at this show and translate this into how they would actually dress?

DARA: I hope so. Because I think you could learn a lot from this. All the colors, how they’re mixed together, and the proportions. You could make it out of clothes that you already have.

OTTENBERG: Right. 

DARA: You could be these girls right now. Even though it’s not on sale yet.

OTTENBERG: Do you like the deconstructed vibe when it’s three skirts sewn together? 

DARA: Yeah. Seeing the girls backstage, it’s like you turn and every angle is a different skirt, which I thought was cool if you imagine it at a party or something. The yellow skirt has these crystals on it that you don’t notice from far away—that’s interesting to me.

OTTENBERG: I also like the soft tailoring and how big these arms are. 

DARA: Wait, let me see which one.

OTTENBERG: Like that’s a great jacket.

DARA: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you call those dresses that have the black straps and everything’s sort of like suspender-y? It’s like that but hanging way too low as if it melted on the body or something.

OTTENBERG: They’re definitely not going for sexy, are they?

DARA: I guess it’s not, but you get all these peeks of the body. If you were around this person, it would probably be sexy.

OTTENBERG: I guess it’s a mix of “look at me” and discretion. Like this finale look is for a no-makeup professional. And then this look is for the ultimate exhibitionist. I wasn’t there, so I’m just looking at it for the first time, but there is maybe a conversation going on with these clothes that’s about the world today. There’s the discreet person who looks like they live by upstanding morals and tradition, and also the deep vulgarity of now.

DARA: Totally. Like scrolling the feed. 

OTTENBERG: Like you’ve got your classic woman, and then the next look, nothing is classic. Everything is “look at me,” everything is for show. 

DARA: I get what you mean. That’s like the reality of our lives is the tension between those things at the same time. To me that’s so womanhood. It’s like, “I need to show everything because if I don’t, then no one’s going to care about me.” And so I’m fighting for this relevance all the time and then actually that is so terrifying. And so I need to retreat. 

OTTENBERG: “I’m going to give it my all because I just want to feel good and be seen and incredible.” And then you’re like, “No, I’m so extra. I’m too much.”

DARA: “Like actually I hate myself and I need to cover up in a boiler suit next time because I actually did too fucking much.” But both are so right because they’re wrong to each other. 

OTTENBERG: Yeah. I like what you just said about the idea of the scrolling—

DARA: It’s like this unending constant opposition to the thing before it, you see the buttoned up all the way strong-shouldered work suit, and then the next thing you see is an acid colored 50s housewife look. And then the next thing she’s totally naked and they all still feel like they’re in the same universe. But I like reading that interview that we did with Mrs. Prada and Raf talking to each other.

OTTENBERG: Yeah.

DARA: Mrs. Prada talks about how she’s not thinking about something being flattering on her body. She’d just rather it be interesting to her to look at or to feel. It’s like there’s a sexiness in unsexy clothes. 

OTTENBERG: Yeah, in that interview they were also talking a lot about AI. And these “sexy” looks are very AI, it’s sort of like a robot making summer clothes.

DARA: Oh my god. Yeah.

OTTENBERG: But the robot doesn’t understand decorum and what’s acceptable.

DARA: Or how to make a boob because a boob is not allowed in the AI machine. So then it melts it in this way and becomes a different shape than it would be in our memories.

OTTENBERG: Yeah. Like look 20.

DARA: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: This unacceptably low-cut top—

DARA: But then the machine put up a shirt that matches her skin underneath or something. 

OTTENBERG: It doesn’t make sense. It’s like when you make an image with AI and you laugh so hard, but it does look cool. I like the casting. 

DARA: Did you see Erin O’Connor?

OTTENBERG: I saw Maggie Rizer and Amanda Murphy and Julia Nobis.

DARA: Yeah, there were some classic Prada girls.

OTTENBERG: This is the ’90s stuff. This is spring, summer 93, which I think was inspired by communist Mao.

DARA: Right.

OTTENBERG: And that’s an early Kate Moss kind of moment. And this is like ‘96 down. But done through the AI machine.

DARA: It’s totally feed the archive into the AI.

OTTENBERG: It does feel like that. So yeah, those girls—

DARA: Actually, Erin O’Connor’s look is so major that it’s navy and black and kind of like a coat made into a skirt, subtly.

OTTENBERG: I love the outfit.

DARA: It’s really hot. Also, just before our phone call, Addison texted me look 24 and goes, “Obsessed with this. It’s so pin-up.”

OTTENBERG: It really is. Anything to say about the front row or does it not matter today?

DARA: I didn’t see anyone that major. 

OTTENBERG: Okay. So this was not a big celebrity moment.

DARA: It was not celebrity gags, which I kind of lived for. I feel like there’s not a lot of celebs this season.

OTTENBERG: I like that. This gives me hope for a good season that’s about the clothes.

DARA: Totally.

OTTENBERG: Okay, cool. Well, I’ll see you when I finally make it to Milan on Saturday and we’ll key in person.

DARA: Can’t wait. Safe travels.