In Prada’s latest offering, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have orchestrated what might be called a philosophical debate rendered in fabric and form. The collection stands not merely as clothing but as a meditation on contemporary femininity itself—that increasingly elusive concept in our gender-fluid, and fluid in general, era.

The runway opened with four little black dresses that set the tonal direction: neither fitted nor loose, existing in that quintessentially Prada territory of considered ambiguity. These pieces featured the hallmarks we’ve come to expect from the brand—deliberate creasing, distressed seams, and buttons that seem placed with studied nonchalance. The silhouette reads as a manifesto: rejecting the obvious constructs of femininity while still acknowledging the female form within.

“For me, glamour is not a sexy dress. It’s the opposite. It’s an interior point of view. You feel important. Glamour is a process. It’s a way of behaving,” Ms. Prada declared backstage, articulating the collection’s essence. Here, glamour is redefined not as external validation but as self-determined power—a radical proposition in fashion’s typically gaze-oriented paradigm.

Mr. Simons elaborated on their approach: “I think it’s a lot about re-contextualising and also a lot of re-arranging, shifting, re-scaling, re-propositioning in terms of materialisation, weight, construction and technique.” This technical explanation underscores the collection’s intellectual foundation—a deliberate deconstruction not just of garments but of prescribed notions of feminine dress.

The fur components deserve particular attention, continuing threads from their menswear offering while responding to broader seasonal trends. Rather than straightforward luxury statements, Prada’s furs appear almost like foreign organisms—collars affixed to wool coats, patchworked waistcoats, and, most memorably, a down coat treated to appear perpetually damp, evoking the uncomfortable yet familiar experience of standing in the rain awaiting transportation that fails to arrive.

In this collection, Prada offers no simple answers about contemporary femininity. Instead, they present a clothed argument that femininity itself exists as a contradiction—to embrace it might seem a surrender of feminist principles; to reject it entirely could betray something essential. By offering garments balanced between beauty and its disruption, stereotypical feminine codes and their subversion, Prada places the ultimate power where it belongs: with the wearer, who must determine for herself what these clothes signify in her own narrative of identity.