We're COMING UNDONE...and So Are Our CLOTHES

The SPRING COLLECTIONS were packed with CLOTHES that appeared to be FALLING OFF the body: LOOSE layers, RIPPED fabrics, UNZIPPED jeans. The WEIGHT of the WORLD feels particularly HEAVY right now; can FASHION reflect our longing to LIVE and LET GO?

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WHAT WAS THAT? This was the collective response to whatever it was—boob flaps? Underwireless, bandless bras?—that fluttered down the runway of Prada’s Spring 2026 collection. They were front and center, paired with other difficult-to-describe, loosey-goosey garments: flimsy, drapey low-waist skirts (with... suspender straps?), fantastic mixed-material wrap skirts, slouchy tunic dresses over bubble skirts, droopy super-low V-neck sweaters, and opera gloves so scrunched, they looked like they could slip right off. Some grumbled that the unstructured garments disregarded a woman's need for support and structure. But Mrs. Prada and Raf Simons have always understood fashion's ability to reflect and respond to the culture around it. The lack of structure was intentional, of course. These clothes were about abandoning all of that in pursuit of something that seems increasingly hard to come by lately: a feeling of being unburdened and unencumbered.

“This collection is about reacting to the uncertain—clothes that can shift, change, adapt,” Mrs. Prada stated in the collection’s show notes. “In the combination of different elements, in this idea of composition, there is a choice and a freedom, authority, and agency for the woman wearing them.” Most everything in Prada’s new collection looked like it was coming undone. And as the fashion season unfurled, it became a look that was less the exception than the norm.

We are living through a time of epic uncertainty, of maximized chaos. As I write this, the government shutdown stretches into its 30th day, with SNAP benefits set to evaporate for the 42 million Americans who depend on them. In Chicago, members of the board of education have called for remote schooling after ICE has taken kids from school. And it’s hard for any piece of news, no matter how horrifying, to capture meaningful attention when the next story is just a scroll away and sandwiched between memes and hauls and GRWMs.