New York Magazine - 02.03.2020

38 THE CUT | MARCH 2–15, 2020

because they were producing so many

shows a year and with theatrical staging.

In 2004, Prada, in an interview with

Michael Specter of The New Yorker,

talked about the push-pull between her

own independent ideas and an

immensely successful brand. She said, “I

want the name Prada to be huge. But

also I want to make what I want to make

and what I want to wear.” It’s safe to say

that has become harder.

Certainly, Prada, 70, and Simons, 52,

have a long, intertwined history. Both

have a wide visual vocabulary, ranging

from nostalgia to futurism to youth

culture. They also connect in their

passion for contemporary art. And

Simons once worked for Prada’s

husband and business partner, Patrizio

Bertelli, when he chose Simons in 2005

to be creative director of Jil Sander.

At the time, Simons was doing his

alternative men’s label out of Antwerp

with a relatively small but discerning fan

base compared with Jil Sander’s. It was

Simons’s first job in the competitive

arena of women’s fashion, and it

changed the course of his career. He

went on to Dior and then, in 2016, to

Calvin Klein; he left there in December

2018. Despite strong sales and mostly
      glowing reviews in the first few seasons,
      a weak quarter and perhaps other
      factors led to a breakup. The company
      has not replaced Simons, nor has it
      staged shows since.
      Simons says Bertelli contacted him
      right after the Calvin Klein exit. “Mr.
      Bertelli emailed me, then he called and
      he asked me to come to Milan. It was a

very open dialogue about Prada’s

future in general.” Later, there were

similar discussions with both Bertelli

and Prada. As Simons said, “Then,

out of that, came this thinking: Why

not do it together?”

Prada insisted that the appointment

of Simons is not a prelude to her

retirement. “Oh, no,” she said. “To me,

to do better, to work harder, I’m very

interested in this.”

Be that as it may, Prada and Bertelli

are at least entertaining the idea of

succession. And if everything comes up

weird and wonderful on the Prada

runway this fall, they will be really

ahead. That’s another message to the

industry, where great founders tend to

think they’re immortal. Giorgio Armani

and Ralph Lauren, are you listening? PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY OF LOUIS VUITTON; COURTESY OF MARC JACOBS; COURTESY OF DIOR; COURTESY OF PYER MOSS; COURTESY OF BALENCIAGA; COURTESY OF PRADA; COURTESY OF DRIES VAN NOTEN; COURTESY OF SAINT LAURENT; COURTESY OF GUCCI; COURTESY OF MIU MIU; COURTESY OF OWENSCORP; COURTESY OF MARNI; SEAN ZANNI/GETTY (SIMONS)

LOUIS VUITTON

shirt, top, skirt

and shoes, at

louisvuitton.com.

MARC JACOBS

dress and Stephen

Jones for Marc

Jacobs headpiece,

at marcjacobs.com.

DIOR dress,

at 21 E. 57th St.

PYER MOSS

jacket and pants,

at pyermoss.com.

BALENCIAGA

gown, at 620

Madison Ave.

PRADA jacket

and skirt,

at prada.com.

DRIES VAN

NOTEN coat,

jeans,and boots,

at nordstrom.com.

SAINT LAURENT

BY ANTHONY

VACCARELLO

dress and shoes,

at 3 E. 57th St.

GUCCI dress,

hat, and boots,

at gucci.com.

MIU MIU dress,

boots, and bag,

at 11 E. 57th St.

RICK OWENS

bodysuit, dress,

bag, and boots,

at 30 Howard St.

MARNI

dress, at 822

Madison Ave.

Candle Key
2020 Spring Runway
(FROM PREVIOUS SPREAD)

as the milan fall shows

were ending—amid the dreadful

news of a surge in the number of

coronavirus cases in Italy—a select

number of journalists were summoned

to a secretive press conference at Prada.

Most could have guessed the purpose:

Raf Simons, the influential menswear

designer who’d recently tried to overhaul

Calvin Klein, was joining Prada. The

move had been rumored for months.

Still, the news came with an

unexpected jolt: Simons would be co-

designing the brand with Miuccia

Prada, beginning April 2, with their first

collection to be shown in Milan in

September. This isn’t a one-off

collaboration. As Prada said, “In theory,

it’s forever.”

So one of the best-known luxury

brands in the world will now draw on the

imaginations of two of the industry’s

most creative minds. “We think it’s

probably the first time that two

designers, two mature designers, decided

to work together,” said Prada, who was

wearing a navy sweater and pants with

an antique diamond necklace.

Does Prada—or any major luxury

brand—really need two huge talents to

design some interesting new clothes?

And at a time when a lot of consumers

are more attuned to a celebrity label

(think of the Rihanna-induced madness

at Bergdorf ’s during New York Fashion

Week) or maybe limiting their designer

purchases to shoes or a bag?

Well, yes. The message behind the

Prada-Simons partnership is that

creativity matters. It should be the motor

of the luxury industry, and its products

(I mean clothes as well as accessories)

should be bold and risky. That’s the

definition of fashion. And for decades,

that was the assumption—that

designers, whether a Lagerfeld or a

Gaultier or a McQueen, had complete

license to disturb the peace.

But in the past few years, as Prada

and Simons themselves have

acknowledged in interviews, there is less

and less time to actually create. When

Simons was creative director at Dior

(from 2012 to 2015, before Calvin

Klein), he and his team typically had

about a month to conceive and execute a

runway collection. That was partly

Raf Simons

Will Join

Miuccia

Prada

Inside a fashion

partnership

for the ages.

By Cathy Horyn

CH-CH-CHANGES

(^) ›