Miuccia Prada has long maintained a symbiotic relationship with the art world, having opened the Fondazione Prada arts centre in Milan in 2015 to house the brand’s extensive contemporary art collection. So bringing together five creatives to interpret her men’s SS21 and women’s pre-collection via a short film was a natural extension.

Titled Multiple Views – and subtitled “The Show that Never Happened” – these visuals were divided into five chapters, the film featured the responses of Terence Nance, Martine Syms, Joanna Piotrowska, Juergen Teller and Willy Vanderperre, whose differing perspectives echo the multiplicity of personal reactions to seeing a fashion show.

For the first chapter, Willy Vanderperre’s black and white film featured models dressed in razor-sharp tailored suiting walking in circles, their bodies distorted out of proportion to the soundtrack of ominous spiccato violin strokes. Chapter II by Jurgen Teller mixed still photographs and moving images of models dressed in nylon suits and full-skirted evening dresses, set to a classical score spliced with the sound of whirring machinery, mirroring the way the clothes become “machines for living,” as the show notes read. 

For Chapter III, photographer Joanna Piotrowska used the sound of the finger snap as a percussive backdrop, intended to “refocus the viewer’s attention to each new look”. Elsewhere American artist Martine Syms’s meta film featured models sat in an auditorium watching themselves on screen, wearing muted green v-neck rib knit sweaters and sculptural coats with rounded shoulders, while for the last chapter filmmaker Terence Nance presented Prada’s Linea Rossa line against the mirrored outer walls of the Fondazione Prada, brilliantly reflecting the all-white technical fabrics.

In contrast to last season which featured graphic prints in bold, punchy colours, the clothes were stripped back and simple, rendered in a mostly monochromatic palette of black, white and grey and acting as a tonic for our increasingly complex times. Cut with a sporty sci-fi feel, there was a cleanness throughout that felt like an exquisite palette cleanser.

At the end of the video Ms Prada took a quick bow, solo, for don’t forget, Raf Simons will be joining her from next season. Ultimate excitement.