At Prada's SS25 show titled ‘Closer’ we walked into inky blackness with a simple white hut in the far corner, pulsating with the sounds of a house party all irradiated with blue neon, a snaking white glossy runway beneath. Pieces were borrowed from 'father and mother', some sitting skinny and short on the body (the ‘creased’ black suits), others slightly too long - the proportions lean and hungry. Hot splashes of primary coloured close-fitting strata sweaters and all-in-one tracksuits with the colour bringing a ray of youthful optimism. It’s about time we had some. Superhero t-shirts used the artwork of the French figurative artist Bernard Buffet: boys to men. The set was referred to as a 'fairytale ravescape” and Junk Tool blasted.

“Closeness reflects emotion… to be closer also shifts perception," the show notes read. "Viewed from afar, pieces can pretend to be other - details may seem simplistic, naïve, but up-close, physically, perceptions transform. Clothes with wired details animate collars and hems with an unreal dynamism, as if alive themselves. Purposefully creased, patinated, aged, garments bear traces of time - imperfection another sign of living, of reality.” It was a finely focused rave of a collection that thrummed with a proposed freedom. We leaned in to this Prada-fuelled power of finding yourself.

prada.com