Jurassic Prada hits the right note on the runway

Actor Jeff Goldblum delivered a knockout punch for Prada in the bloodless boxing ring known better as the Milan menswear fashion season. The veteran of Jurassic Park, Independence Day and The Fly, recently appointed popular culture’s unofficial crazy uncle, was the closing model for the Italian luxury house’s runway show, appealing equally to the TikTok crowd and those still struggling with Facebook.

Wearing a black double-breasted coat, where the faux fur trim had crawled up the sleeves to warm toned biceps, Goldbum, 69, remained in non-smiling model mode, letting physically distanced onlookers guess whether the mildly eccentric clothing was its own punchline.

Joining the cast of “where do I know him from?” faces were Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield, Love Actually’s grown-up drummer boy Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders, in a collection perversely dedicated to workwear, with most spectators witnessing the runway from their home offices. In Prada’s COVID-safe workspace ties have been traded for silk strips, padded shoulders deserve a promotion and printed jumpsuits trump cartoon socks for quirkiness.

Kyle MacLachlan, 62, probably still waiting for a call from Sarah Jessica Parker to see whether his Sex and the City character Dr Trey MacDougal will return to fully appreciate Charlotte in And Just Like That… walked with the conviction of his ex-girlfriend, supermodel Linda Evangelista. A silken blue shirt, trousers and gloves peeking from beneath his overcoat, unintentionally winked at his character’s medical past.

“Here, everyday reality is valorised, its signs and signifiers exchanged with those of elegance and
sophistication,” co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons stated in the notes accompanying the collection. “A sense of occasion is given to everyday activity – an import, a worth, emphasising the value of work to society.”

Translation? If you make it into the office after your masked train journey, RAT test and finding just where you left your security card, you may as well dress for the occasion. At Prada, this involved leather coats with quarterback shoulders, treated silk jumpsuits and bomber jackets cinched like a contestant’s waist on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

There was unmistakable power in the clothing, but it’s in the publicity game that Prada whipped the competition at a season of menswear shows where designers struggled for attention. Omicron outbreaks forced Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester to postpone an eagerly awaited event at the menswear trade show Pitti Uomo in Florence, Giorgio Armani cancelled both his Milan menswear shows and Jonathan Anderson made a last-minute switch from the runway to film for his presentation.

With its starry line-up Prada owned the headlines, but it was a convincing double jab following the release of the Adidas Re-Nylon collection, which hit online stores days ago and pushed the brand to the top of luxury shoppers’ search engines. The third collaboration between the luxury label and sportswear staple features 21-pieces utilising the nylon which propelled Prada to fame with its signature backpacks in the eighties and nineties.