Miuccia Prada - Designer, Co-Creative Director of Prada & Creative Director of Miu Miu

[Olaffo]

^ maybe it’s a wishful thinking but I hope they’ll pick him for Balenciaga due to his enormous ego and couture etc. and then Prada will be free !

 

[Grets]

The inner circles of Raf Simons and Phoebe Philo are killing fashion. There I said it.

 

[Avonlea]

It's amazing how much Raf has achieved with so little talent.

 

[Norden]

I think raf is very talented, but the zeitgeist has definitely moved elsewhere and I don’t think he kept up. But he’s nothing without a strong team that has a good eye for aesthetics. He on himself is so clinical, no poetry. It’s just very cold, and in that sense he lacks world building. My biggest problem with raf at Prada, he has nothing to say about women. I think with Miuccia and Manuela, they really have/had an opinion and direction. With raf it’s just half baked ideas rendered in the most clinical way. It’s extremely unappealing.

 

[tricotineacetat]

His Cavalli was a disaster but his career shows that he is maybe more efficient as a number 2.

His appointment at Cavalli was an odd move, for someone who enjoyed his Z Zegna, I would have never seen him at a house that seemed the polar opposite of his aesthetics.

That being said, he is one of the most storied menswear designers and it’s a pity he was not considered for Jil Sander where his point of view would have been a perfect fit - Certainly a better choice than the guy who is now coming from Bally.

 

[0729866]

I think raf is very talented, but the zeitgeist has definitely moved elsewhere and I don’t think he kept up. But he’s nothing without a strong team that has a good eye for aesthetics. He on himself is so clinical, no poetry. It’s just very cold, and in that sense he lacks world building. My biggest problem with raf at Prada, he has nothing to say about women. I think with Miuccia and Manuela, they really have/had an opinion and direction. With raf it’s just half baked ideas rendered in the most clinical way. It’s extremely unappealing.

Well said.

Raf's work has always centered around European male youth and subculture, whereas Miuccia has always been about making clothes for women — of any age, sure, and definitely skewing a bit older, but her core intentions have always been to make clothes for women.

Though Raf's work at Jil Sander was good, especially towards the end, I think his tenure worked because the austerity of the brand overlaps a lot with some of his core references and sensibilities. However, we can see that when he extends beyond that, evidenced at Dior and CK, his design vocabulary is very limited, not because he isn't a good designer, but rather because the strength of his work came from its associations with a very specific time in Europe (late '90s/early aughts), music, and casting. When you strip those things away from him, he doesn't have much else to say...and when he still has them...well, it didn't quite work, as we can see with the last collections for his own brand before it closed.

 

[oioioi]

Surridge is replacing Janosch Mallwitz (Raf, Dior Homme/Men alum) who was head menswear designer from SS23-FW24. Meanwhile, he is another Raf alum (Jil menswear head 2007-2011) and is avaliable as LP preps for the alleged arrival of the Meiers.

Clemande Burgevin Blachman, another new Prada hire named in the WWD article, was part of Raf’s inner circle at Calvin along with Matthieu and Pieter and just started her newly invented role as design director of jewelry/textiles/home fresh out of her fashion accessories creative directorship at Hermes.

Ilaria Icardi in another newly invented position as designer director is also a Raf placement.

Surridge is replacing Gianpiero Pesce who was the Prada Uomo Design Director and has been there for 30 years, exited a year ago, any 'head' designers report to that Design Director.
Ilaria Icardi was chosen and hired by Bertelli (neither Miuccia or Raf involved in that decision making process). It is well-known in Italy that Bertell makes bottom line decisions on all senior to top positions, and its often a battle that you're either liked by Miuccia or Bertelli but never both.