“Seduction, Stripped Down” is the title of Prada’s SS22. Marking Raf Simons’ first live show as co-creative director (his debut last year showcased digitally), and its larger context in the reopening world, notions of tenderness and physicality were naturally in the atmosphere. But some quarantine-isms die hard: each look walked simultaneously at two shows across the Fondazione Prada, Milan, and Shanghai’s Bund 1. A livestream of the other in each respective space created a unique experience of community across physical and virtual realities.

This attitude of reforming tradition defined the collection. A staid language of elegance was recontextualised into new meaning. A fantasy of Duchesse satin and red lace were made casual, trains minimised to a stroke of silk, and corset boning and lacing became spontaneous expressions rather than a restrictive form. In their idea, it was a world away from the cocooning long johns proposed over webcam by Prada and Simons last year. As the show notes read, “the body is freed.”