Prada looks to the past for Fall/Winter 2026 menswear

Prada unveiled its Fall/Winter 2026 menswear collection in Milan on January 18th, with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons offering a refined take on tailoring that merged historical references with contemporary construction.

The collection introduced a new elongated silhouette that dominated the runway. Slim outerwear took center stage, with extended wool coats cut close to the body and trousers featuring a light flare at the hem. The overall effect was precise and architectural, with oversized cuffs emphasising proportion.

"What can we build, from what we have learned?" the show notes posed. "The Fall/Winter 2026 menswear collection suggests evolution without erasure, new ideas created bearing echoes of a collective anterior."

This approach manifested in garments that appeared simple at first glance but revealed complexity in their construction. Traditional menswear codes, tailored coats, structured trousers, classic shirtin, were reimagined through questioning proportions and unexpected details.

Non-standard colours in menswear played a significant role, with outerwear and shirting in purples, old rose and bright green. The collection notes described these as "excavating considerations of other times, juxtaposing reference to eras and layers of meaning. Antiquity, renaissance, modernity."

The show took place at the Deposito of the Fondazione Prada, transformed into what the designers called "a liminal space" where private interiors framed a public presentation. The staging reinforced the collection's theme of revealing what's typically concealed—both in terms of the venue's architecture and the garments' intricate construction methods.

"A persistence of universal human values, values of civilization, culture, meaning, intelligence, care, may be conveyed through clothes," the show notes stated, positioning the collection as a meditation on continuity and craftsmanship in uncertain times.

The emphasis on duration and memory came through in fabrications and finishes that suggested wear, utility and warmth, garments designed to carry "impressions of life" rather than pursue newness for its own sake.