Prada S/S 2021 Milan

[RaisinBoy]

Today I saw in the streets of Paris a woman with a full look (the top was from look4 with the big dots and she had a black pant) with pink crocs and grey socks underneath. It just looked sweaty and vulgar.

This collection looks terrible IRL tbh.

I'm visiting Romem these days, so I naturally went to see what's going on in the stores. Prada is the most depressing of them all. There were five or six SAs, no customers, and black nylon products with triangle embellishments everywhere. Pool sliders for €490 with a logo print? Miuccia, get your sh*t together.

 

[Frederic01]

I'm visiting Romem these days, so I naturally went to see what's going on in the stores. Prada is the most depressing of them all. There were five or six SAs, no customers, and black nylon products with triangle embellishments everywhere. Pool sliders for €490 with a logo print? Miuccia, get your sh*t together.

Unfortunately this is the global strategy now; to focus on nylons and commercial/logo products. From what I understand, the runway pieces will be even more limited than before and less visible at the boutique level. Most of the collection will need to be pre-ordered from a small selection already made by the merchandising team: most of it is not put into production.

Whoever is in change of this new strategy/approach needs to seriously rethink their position. For a start, the prices of the Raf Miuccia pieces are far too high. Prada is being priced at the level of Chanel and Dior, but those brands do not sell cheap nylons and have diffusion lines like Linea Rossa. Second of all, the selection made available to order is so limited. Prada is the only brand I know that produces so little of their runway collection. At every other brand 90% of the collection is available to be ordered.

I digress. I know a lot of Prada clients who used to buy RTW (every season mind you) have now moved on to Bottega Veneta (which is priced so well) and/or to Chanel/Dior, where they feel like they can justify the price.

Case in point; this parka from the Spring Summer collection was $6900USD. It is printed silk taffeta.

Prada.com/

 

[YohjiAddict]

^I'd always thought Prada not producing their runway pieces was such a waste...but nowadays is for the better, Imagine seeing all those clones in shapeless blood stained parkas!

Even if that atrocity is chiné printed, which I doubt, it's far too much for something so casual. Maybe they should give Patrick Von Ommeslaeghe a call?

 

[susseinmcswanny]

Not defending prada in any capacity but I think that parka is made of a warp printed silk so it might cost a bit extra to produce. In addition they commissioned Peter de potter for the print. But still lol. Their price point is delusional.

My SA and I had a convo about this and I straight up told him the prices are too high for what the products are worth and that the new direction is not looking good. It felt like such a faux pas on my part and it initially scared me to be so honest, but it kinda felt empowering to give feedback and not enable their deluded decisions lol. He knows I won't be a RTW client anymore for a long while. Anyways he kind of agreed and did bring up that the prices have been increasing, and that a lot of the older clients frequently bring up the absence of Pavesi... which is interesting. It seems like the people at the top washed their hands of the past and are really gung-ho about getting the gen z $$$$, so pushing nylon and triangles with Raf stuff here and there might work to make the money. SAD but what are we gonna do :/

 

[Frederic01]

^^^ How interesting, thank you for your insight. It's good to know my friends and I are not the only ones having these exact same conversations with our SA's!

Personally, I believe the problem is not Raf but the management at the top. They have bizarre ideas / delusions of grandeur about who and what they are on the luxury market. They all need to go. Blatantly copying the retail model of Dior is soooooooo unoriginal. The Prada "outdoor-mountain-picnic" capsule that is currently available is a very suspicious copy of the Dioriviera idea that have been going for what, three years now?

The company also has a massive missed opportunity with Raf and Gen Z in terms of the menswear particularly. Young guys who are obsessed with Raf, and pay thousands (and sometimes tens of thousands) more on vintage and hard-to-get Raf pieces through online retailers like Grailed and eBay, would be a perfect target group for Prada.

Unfortunately they are not going to watch the collection six months in advance, order something at the time of the buy, and pay a full deposit, as is the norm at the boutique level these days. They are not going to go into the store in July when the collection arrives and order things that weren't bought by the local buyers and wait another two months to receive it. Fashion moves quickly and people want what they want now.

Prada could have make a fortune from these young Raf "hype beasts" by launching the collection early with select commercial pieces from the show, but instead they chose to do an outdoor collection that was designed by an instagram algorithm. And they wonder why they have problems selling the collection. Hopeless!

 

[FelipeV]

Unfortunately this is the global strategy now; to focus on nylons and commercial/logo products. From what I understand, the runway pieces will be even more limited than before and less visible at the boutique level. Most of the collection will need to be pre-ordered from a small selection already made by the merchandising team: most of it is not put into production.

Whoever is in change of this new strategy/approach needs to seriously rethink their position. For a start, the prices of the Raf Miuccia pieces are far too high. Prada is being priced at the level of Chanel and Dior, but those brands do not sell cheap nylons and have diffusion lines like Linea Rossa. Second of all, the selection made available to order is so limited. Prada is the only brand I know that produces so little of their runway collection. At every other brand 90% of the collection is available to be ordered.

I digress. I know a lot of Prada clients who used to buy RTW (every season mind you) have now moved on to Bottega Veneta (which is priced so well) and/or to Chanel/Dior, where they feel like they can justify the price.

Case in point; this parka from the Spring Summer collection was $6900USD. It is printed silk taffeta.
View attachment 1176624
Prada.com/

Raf Simons is so full of himself he probably thinks his work is museum-worthy, and the price tag has to come along with that feeling.